THE YEAR THAT WAS/ Fasten your seat belts…

Mumbai: Who would have thought that by now we’d have an Australian and American at the helm of affairs at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA). With a combined experience of over 50 years in the dramatically changing aviation industry, Airport Director Phillip Cash and Chief Operating Officer Rudy Vercelli are set to change our flying experience.
If check fares and low cost, no frills airlines changed the way we took to the skies, these two will ensure our on-ground experience is far, far better in Mumbai. And how.
From Chanel to Armani, passengers will be able to shop for the choicest luxury brands at the airport, with an equally tantalising eating experience at the wi-fi enabled terminal. While most of this will be available by 2010, on offer next year will be new trolleys for the international terminal and new seating across CSIA. Furious construction will also commence on the new terminal at Sahar, in addition to extension of terminal 1-A.
We’ve already noticed some improvements: there are additional check-in counters, cleaner toilets, better housekeeping, improved signages, fast food kiosks, curbside management, minor aesthetic changes, and smoother traffic flow. Now, the airport can even boast of a new corporate identity and logo, which borrows from the vibrant hues of a peacock feather.
It all started with the government handing over the country’s two top airports—Mumbai’s CSIA and Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport—to private developers for modernisation and upgradation, even as nationwide protests were witnessed across 126 airports by Left-backed Airports Authority of India Employees Union.
Beating five international consortiums, the GVK-Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) group -who incidentally bid only for Mumbai and is sharing 38.7 per cent revenue with the government- were entrusted with revamping CSIA. As per the April 4 agreement, the JV, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), will operate, manage and develop the airport for 30 years, with an option of extending the term by another 30 years.
Lekha Agarwal/Mumbai Newsline

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