SC throws out plea for reopening old H'bad, B'lore airports

A bench comprising Justice R V Raveendran and Justice H L Gokhale rejected the petition of the AAEU seeking restoration of commercial operations at the Hyderabad and Bangalore airports of the Airport Authority of India.

The Begumpet Airport at Hyderabad and HAL Airport at Banglore were run by AAI before their closure. These airports were closed for commercial operations after new greenfield airports were established on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer basis by private companies.

Earlier, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had also rejected the plea of the employees' union to restore commercial operations at the two airports, terming it a premature case.
The new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad, in Hyderabad, is being run by a GMR-led consortium, while the new airport at Bangalore is located at Dewanhalli and is operated by a GVK group-led consortium.