Civil aviation ministry decides to return old Begumpet airport to Indian Air Force

NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry has decided to return the old Begumpet airport in Hyderabad to the Indian Air Force (IAF). The airport, which is owned by IAF and was operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) as a civil enclave till 2008, was closed after a greenfield airport was developed under public-private partnership.

“The IAF wants that airport for strategic reasons and we have decided to give it back to them. Why should we hold it?” said a senior civil aviation ministry official, who did not want to be identified. Another official said that the Air Force currently has a training centre at the airport and “there could be other strategic reasons too behind taking the airport back”.

The Navigation Training School of the Training Command, IAF, formerly known as the Navigation and Signals School (N&SS), is based at the airport.

The airport in Begumpet was the key airport for the city till March 23, 2008, when it was shut after a new airport with private participation was opened in Hyderabad by GMR-led consortium.

The closure of airport was based on an arrangement that a second airport can’t be operational within 150 km of a new airport, a condition that figures in all concession agreements for greenfield airports. After the closure of the airport for commercial flights, it is being used for aviation and flight training purposes and VIP flight movements.

The civil aviation ministry had also proposed to start an Air Traffic Control training centre at the Begumpet airport but that is unlikely to materialise now.

The Hyderabad airport was privatised along with the Bengaluru airport, which is owned by Hindustan Aeronauticals Ltd (HAL), and was shut after the new airport started operations. Unlike for Hyderabad airport, a lot of requests have been made for the reopening of Bengaluru airport on two grounds – the new airport is far from the city and HAL has lost a lot of revenue post the closure.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar recently wrote to civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, requesting him to consider reopening the HAL airport in Bengaluru. The defence minister’s argument centres on HAL suffering revenue losses after the airport was shut down in 2008.