Except cabbies, runway closure affects no others

The passengers were forewarned, the airlines had rescheduled flights, the only people who suffered because of the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) runaway maintenance work seemed to be the cab drivers.

The closure of the runway from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm has forced them to work at night. Srinivas of Ambassador Travels, says: “Earlier we used to have a day and night service. But now, we are doing only night service.” He adds that on a regular day, they would do four trips but now, since all the arrivals are clubbed together, they only manage two trips a day. “It takes us longer to travel back and forth from the airport in the evening traffic. We can manage two trips at the most,” he says.

According to the BIA spokesperson, all the flights are on schedule. “We had sent the new schedules to all the airlines and they had informed the passengers in advance. Most of the passengers were aware of the changes. So, they had made plans accordingly.”

The BIAL also said that only a few transit passengers were at the airport and they also knew about the longer layover and had made plans accordingly. “A few of them took the KSTDC tour to Nandi Hills yesterday but I’m not aware of anyone who took the tour today,” the spokesperson added.

Passengers also seemed to have very little to complain. Travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Bangalore with his family on an Airasia flight, Renukavardan said his flight was initially slated to arrive in Bangalore at 4.35 pm but landed only at 7 pm. 

“We were informed about it in advance, so we had made the necessary arrangements,” he said.

Mahtab, who was travelling to Bangalore from Kolkata on an Indigo flight, also said that he was informed two days earlier that his flight from Kolkata, which was supposed to leave at 2 pm, would instead leave at 4 pm.

Air India and Indigo executives said that though the number of flights arriving in the City had come down, all their flights were operating on time as per the new schedule.

The BMTC has also rescheduled its Vajra bus service to suit the new flight schedule. According to Vajra help desk, there is a bus to the Majestic bus terminal every hour, but there is no service to other locations between 10 am and 4 pm. The buses resume normal service after 4 pm.