'Shamshabad...what's that?'

Hyderabad: In a slip up hours after the Shamshabad airport opened for business, a KLM flight from Amsterdam which was supposed to land at Hyderabad skipped the airport and flew across the country first to Delhi and then to Mumbai.
Apparently the pilot knew nothing about the new airport and hovered towards Begumpet only to be told that the facility had been shut. He was directed to Shamshabad to which the pilot asked the Air Traffic Control (ATC) staff: "Shamshabad...what's that?" The pilot first flew to Delhi where after being refused permission to land, took the plane to Mumbai.
Sources said the pilot of KLM Dutch Airlines flight was unwilling to land at the new airport because the company headquarters at Amsterdam did not receive the Notam (notice to airmen) about the closure of Begumpet and opening of Shamshabad. But airport sources wondered how this was possible because the Notam was sent to all the airlines across the world and everybody else seems to have received it.
However, the officials of GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd claimed that the KLM pilot did not want to take any risk by landing at a new airport at a time when the weather was not good with low clouds.
24/03/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Mar 2008, New Mar 2008