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Originally Posted by hondadude As mentioned in one of the posts, the exclusive contract is for 5 years and not forever. Besides, talking about monopoly is not correct here. Lets rewind the clock a bit.
Govt wanted another airport a few years back. They invited bids. There were condition from both the sides and a contract was signed. Where is monopoly coming into the picture ?
Please don't get me wrong. I am a big fan of fair competition and choice and I am totally anti-monopoly. All I am saying is, it is not correct to call this monopoly when it is a question of business viability that is built in the contract. |
I said we must look out for future agreements of this nature. Not allowing another airport to operate creates a monopoly operator in every definition of the word. What we did in the past, we must analyse and learn from, for the future. Every company could invoke the viability clause to get itself monopoly protection - thats not an argument at all. Maybe, they need to charge twice the fees, and so does the other operator (as and when that operator decides a 2nd airport is viable, or indeed they can provide a better solution). That is free market and competition. If the 1st guy or 2nd guy fail, are not efficient, don't provide value to the customer, they should legitimately go out of business! All business face the same risk, and why should an airport constructor/operator be different ? Now,BIAL or HIAL (Hyderabad) had it too good - we honour the agreements there. However, for the future, this is unacceptable! One just takes a monopoly of AAI and replaces with another private one, cannot be allowed in the future.
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Originally Posted by hondadude And pray why do you think that we are under illusion. I don't think anyone is under this illusion. |
I didn't intend to mean that everyone is, but, let me rephrase. We must be constructive about BIAL. We must support what they do good, and criticize where they fail, mismanage, and/or need to improve. Many of the posts here (could be i am wrong), seem to read like "BIAL rescues the Bangalorean from the clutches and lowlights of HAL" -> great! for someone whose uses HAL airport more than 2 dozen times a year, HAL sucks big time. However, do we want BIAL to provide HAL++, or a world class, best of breed airport ? If its the latter, then we need to do our bit to make BIAL aware of their shortcomings, or ?
Read these articles to see how BIAL has been below average in several areas in the past and were forced by ministry of civil aviation to pull up their socks!
Deccan Herald - 'Factory-like' airport is an eyesore, says Centre Bangalore airport design flawed-Bangalore-Cities-The Times of India
Incredibly, I read recently a report quoting Albert Brunner (CEO of BIAL) saying that the runway is capable of receving an A380 but the hangars are not designed for it ! After, Delhi and Bombay old airports modified themselves to enable A380, this seems the kind of retrograde behavior we need to protest, or ?
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Originally Posted by hondadude True and do you know if there isn't a business case for BIAL ? Do you believe that Govt agreed for these clauses without looking at the business case ? |
Frankly, I don't know - so I put it as a question and more to emphasize that an interested party will ofcourse want the best business case, but has it really been reviewed in hind sight to learn for the future ? The BIAL and HIAL airports were new endeavors for the govt, so everyone needs to do a lot of learning ... As an extreme case, the govt agreed to the Enron deal for Dabhol. Everyone agrees that deal was unfair, lopsided, and untenable. It was said by many that it could be treated as a case of Enron duping the Govt. into an agreement by exaggerating the "true" benefits of the deal!
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Originally Posted by hondadude There is a difference. Govt invited contract to build the airport. This is an entirely different scenario than a player (airline) entering a business which is open to all. Comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges. |
You miss what I wanted to say. I didn't mean compare the two. Govt has a responsibility not only to airport operators but to be fair to various businesses in the eco-system. Airlines are operating already (using existing airports), and if suddenly changes the rules of engagement, it is not fair on them - Govt has to balance financial impacts for various parties involved - most of all, it needs to keep customers' interests uppermost. Hence, for the future, they need to ask more than one dimensional questions on various aspects and dynamics of such large infrastructure projects that involve multiple businesses - operator, airlines, cargo, services etc..