Hyderabad airport in talks with European carriers

Hyderabad: GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL), who owns and operates the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here, on Friday said that it was in talks with some European carriers for launching their services from Hyderabad.

"We are talking to European carriers. We are also talking to some of the long haul Indian carriers to fly to Europe. We are focusing on Europe because barring UK, we don't have any other direct flight to Europe,"

SGK Kishore, Chief Executive Officer, GHIAL, told the media here.He further said that unserved destinations in Southeast Asia like Indonesia were also focus area for GHIAL, adding that third area would be to have more wide-bodied connections out of Hyderabad.

"In the next two to three years we see some of the European carriers coming back to Hyderabad. Lufthansa and KLM used to fly earlier. We are in talks with them, it may take couple of years before they take a decision in resuming flights," Kishore added.

According to him, RGIA handled 15.5 million passengers last year. "We may end up the year at around 18 million passengers. If you see total traffic, one fourth is international, which is growing at around 9 per cent, while the domestic is growing at around 20 per cent," he said.

On the expansion, he said the company had submitted a Rs 2,500 crore- airport expansion proposal to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority for its approval and the tariff regulator may issue a consultation paper on this issue shortly. Currently, the Hyderabad airport connects to 57 domestic and international destinations.