Mittu Chandilya, the 33-year old CEO of AirAsia India, has joined the chorus in support of reopening the HAL Airport in Bangalore. Interacting with management students of a college in Bangalore on Thursday, he said he would support the HAL airport if it reopened again to commercial operations in Bangalore while also urging the Centre to focus more on low-cost airports.
While there has been many such instances of various stake-holders in the society urging the Centre to open the HAL Airport again for civilian use, the water-tight clause in the agreement which has been entered into by the GVK-led Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) which runs the expansive international airport on the outskirts of Bangalore, will make it difficult for a second airport within a 150-km radius.
This statement by Chandilya comes even as AirAsia is in the various stages of negotiations with the BIAL to make it their main hub in India.
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While Chandilya also voiced aviation industries’ main concern on the high taxation on aviation turbine fuel, he said, he is bullish on Indian aviation industry as the number of people flying for a population of 1.2 billion is just 100 million. He believes it’s the right time to invest in aviation as the industry is at rock bottom and it’s only going to grow from here.
“I believe we are in the transport business. My biggest challenge is to get the government to realise that air travel is mass transport. I don’t see myself any different from the Railways or buses. The regulatory and infrastructure set up in India have not evolved,” he said, adding that his company would “never get into price wars with other airlines”.
He added that Indigo Airlines has put in good systems in place, but AirAsia would not consider similar moves.