Rajiv Gandhi Interantional Airport begins operations

Hyderabad, Mar 22 (UNI) A milestone in the India's aviation was written when the Lufthansa flight from Franfurt touched the runway of the Rajiv Gandhi Interantional Airport (RGIA), Shamshabad, country's first greenfield airport project under Public Private Partnership (PPP), which was inagurated by the AICC President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on March 14, at 0012 hours midnight today.

The Frankfurt- Shamshabad bound Lufthansa flight landed at the airport at 0012 hours amidst glowing lights and a big ceremonial reception, organised by the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), a consortium of private investors led by GMR Infrastructure Limited, holds 63 per cent.

Moments after UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi formally inaugurated the airport on March 14, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry (MocA) put off the operations of the airport scheduled to begin at 0025 hrs on March 16.

The Ministry sought time on issues raised by the low-cost carriers to shift their operations from the Hyderabad Airport at Begumpet to the new airport at Shamshabad.

The Ministry had communicated that no user development charges would be collected from domestic passengers initially unlike Rs 1,000 from each international passenger.

After a seven-day tussle with the low-cost airline operators, the Ministry today gave a green signal to GHIAL to start operations at the Shamshabad Airport from midnight Sunday.

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