Commercial use of Hyderabad, Bangalore airports to go on

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• Airport employees call off strike
• Hyd, B'lore old airports to remain operational
• Hyderabad, Bangalore old airports to be shut down

Keywords: AAI, Praful Patel

New Delhi: New In a significant U-turn, the Union Government has said that the old airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore can be used commercially.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said that commercial flights will be allowed to land and take off from the two airports in the future.

On Wednesday, he had said that though the old airports will remain open, but will be used for defence and emergency purposes only.

Patel has also said that it will take another month for the new airport at Bangalore to get ready.

Patel also appealed to the Airports Authority of India employees, who on a 'non- cooperation' since Wednesday to protest the closure of the two existing airports, to withdraw their protest in the interest of the nation.

Meanwhile, domestic and international flight operations across the country were normal on Thursday, but airport services were hit as the 'non- cooperation' by AAI employees against closure of Bangalore and Hyderabad airports entered the second day.

Used coffee and teacups, empty water bottles and waste paper piled up at airports and passengers complained of dirty toilets. The strike, however, has had no impact on flight schedules, Delhi airport officials said.

In Chennai, flight operations remain unaffected. Airport officials said 17 flights left for various destinations, including Delhi and Mumbai, while 13 arrived in the domestic sector and over 20 flights were operated as scheduled in the international sector up to 1000 hrs IST.