Aero India resonance at airport deafening, complain flyers

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Fliers and netizens have complained of “absolute chaos” at the Kempegowda International Airport as rehearsals are underway for the upcoming Aero India 2023.

The Aero India show will be held from February 13 to 17 in Bengaluru. Commuters have complained of long queues and flight delays at the airport. Twitter has been flooded with pictures and videos of massive crowds queuing up in long lines at the airport.

Prateek Shrivastava, sharing two videos said, “Look at the commotion at #Bengaluru airport and it’s Thursday morning (Feb 9). So many people will miss their flights. Airport authorities really need to do something here. How about distributing traffic to T2? ANY PLANS?”

“Absolute chaos at @ BLRAirport. For Aero India, a majority of flights are cancelled or rescheduled to a shorter window frame. If you’re travelling, plan to reach at least 3 hrs prior to departure,” another user Sabyasachi Parida wrote, and warned commuters to reach the airport hours early.

Another user posted a picture of a long queue and claimed it to be more than a kilometre long. Flight daily, a Twitter handle, claimed that several flights were either delayed or cancelled since Thursday morning. Airport management replied to several of the tweets and said that the issues were taken up with the operations team.

They blamed the chaos on the “surge of passengers due to airspace closure and the Aero India show”. “We have highlighted your concern with our operations team to look into them at the earliest. Further, there will be a phased transition of airlines that will operate flights from T2. Over the next few months, additional domestic airlines will move to T2,” BLR Airport replied to one of the tweets.

Airport authorities had earlier shared that flight disruption could be expected on the following days due to the partial closure of airspace for the air show:

On February 8, commercial flight operations will be shut between 9 am and 12 pm and from 2 pm to 5 pm. Similarly, restrictions are in place from February 9-11

On February 12, runways will be shut between 9 am and 12 pm for the final dress rehearsal and at the same time on February 13 for the inauguration ceremony, fly past and flying display

Given the flying display, the airspace will be closed from 12 pm to 2.30 pm on February 14 and 15 l

Operations will be shut from 9.30 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 5 pm on February 16-17 for the flying display.