The Hindu Business Line : High drama on ground

Hyderabad, Oct. 15 The Begumpet airport here, which has been non-functional for about six months ever since the new greenfield Rajiv Gandhi International Airport opened at Shamshabad, was once again humming with activity on Wednesday.

It is the venue of India Aviation 2008.

Standing on the airfield were a variety of aircraft — from the baby in the Air India family, the Airbus A-319, which had just landed mint fresh from Hamburg to aircraft of Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher.

Sharing space were private jets and helicopters enticing participants to come and see how the rich and the famous travel. The buzz at the airport caused many visitors to comment, “Why did the Government close this airport? If so many people are landing and taking off from here why should we travel so far to catch a flight”, they wondered.

Slip-ups

The opening day saw a few slip-ups as well and that too with the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel. As the Minister walked into address a press conference a few minutes after the appointed time, he was stopped on way as a mike was unavailable for him to start the conference. “Should I start?” he asked, only to be greeted with a loud “No” from the camera teams in waiting. “Sir, our viewers will not be able to hear you,” they said.

Earlier in the day, there was high drama at the Taj Krishna where CEOs were having a meeting before the show began.

The media landed there only to be told, sorry not invited. Fine, they said and made themselves comfortable on the steps and windows.

The organisers had a tough time asking the assembled scribes to be silent while the CEOs were holding discussions. Finally, when Mr Vijay Mallya and Mr Naresh Goyal came out of the meeting, all hell broke loose.

Left with little space to move out, the airlines chiefs had no choice but to answer all queries till it was nearing the the opening ceremony time.

Finally, they managed to slip away but only till the main porch, “I will wait for Naresh (Goyal),” said Mr Mallya as he put his hand on the open door of a gleaming white Mercedes E-270.

Great, said the media and started shooting more questions.

A few minutes later along came Mr Goyal and then a fleet of luxury cars left in a procession.

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