But the first commercial flight to take-off from BIA’s runway would remain the same as scheduled before. The first departure from BIA will be an Indian Airlines-flight IC957 bound to Singapore, scheduled to take off at 5 am on May 11, the inaugural date of the airport. This flight to Singapore was the one that had been scheduled as the first flight to take-off from the BIA, when it was earlier scheduled to start commercial operations on March 30.

“The first “take off” is very significant as it marks the opening and commercial operations of airports world over,” BIAL officials told Deccan Herald.

Similarly, all flight arrivals on May 10 after 20:00 hours is expected to land at the BIA, hinting that it would mark a decisive shift of flight movements from the existing HAL airport to the BIA. As per the concessional agreement between BIAL and the promoters of the airport, all flight operations at  HAL is scheduled to stop once the BIA starts commercial operations.

On the other hand the first flight scheduled to land would most likely be a domestic airliner and the new airport will see close to eight domestic and 16 international landings by the morning of May 11.

Meanwhile, BIAL officials maintained that all the airport partners were effectively using the additional time till May 11 for training, trials and landscaping activities.

“ BIAL had committed to give the city of Bangalore an international airport on March 30 and we will stick to this date, for the completion of the airport facilities in all respects. Work is continuing as scheduled with finishing touches being given to the commercial areas in the terminal building,” said Officials.