Bangalore is one of the rapid growing metropolitan cities of Indian. Now another milestone is paving in the form of a new International Airport, with final trials scheduled for March 7, 2008, before it will be formally opened to the public from the end of March 2008.Air Deccan flights are expected to fly in to the international airport from the existing HAL Airport, while Kingfisher flights will land from Mumbai. The test flights are a part of a mandatory procedure for the airport to become operational.
Located around 40 kms from Bangalore, the trials at the international airport came at a time when a PIL had been pending in the Karnataka High Court, challenging the closure of the HAL airport, after the new one at Devanahally becomes operational.
The PIL had been filed on the grounds that it would cause inconvenience to passengers of short haul, who would have to travel nearly 40 kms to reach the new airport to catch a flight. According to a previous agreement, the Centre has to ensure and notify that older airports are not used for commercial civil aviation operations, once the new one becomes functional, although they can continue to provide general aviation services.