Kempegowda International Airport

Kempegowda International Airport
IATA: BLR – ICAO: VOBL BLR Location of airport in India
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner/Operator		Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL)
Serves		Bengaluru
Location		Devanahalli, Karnataka, India
Opened		23 May 2008
Hub for		Blue Dart Aviation Deccan Aviation
Elevation AMSL		915 m / 3,002 ft
Coordinates		13°11′56″N 077°42′20″E / 13.19889°N 77.70556°E / 13.19889; 77.70556 (Kempegowda International Airport)Coordinates: 13°11′56″N 077°42′20″E / 13.19889°N 77.70556°E / 13.19889; 77.70556 (Kempegowda International Airport)
Website		www.bengaluruairport.com
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
09/27	4,200	15,126	Asphalt
Statistics (Apr '12 – Mar '13)
Passenger movements			11,993,887
Aircraft movements			104,642
Cargo tonnage			226,548
Source: AAI[1][2]

Kempegowda International Airport (IATA: BLR, ICAO: VOBL) is an international airport serving the Indian city of Bangalore. It is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of Devanahalli and is 40 kilometres (25 mi) from the central business district of Bangalore, (30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Bangalore City Railway Station^[3]) and covers 5,130 acres (2,080 ha).^[4] It replaced the HAL airport. For the financial year 2011–12, it is the third busiest airport in the country in overall passenger traffic (12.69 million) after Delhi and Mumbai and fourth busiest in international passenger traffic.^[5] It was awarded "India's best airport" for the year 2011 by the survey conducted by Skytrax.^{[citation needed]}

Kempegowda International Airport handled about 12.6 million passengers and had air traffic movements (ATM) of about 330 per day in 2011.^[6] The airport is expected to handle 18 million passengers in 2015. It is host to 10 domestic airlines and 21 international airlines connecting the city to about 50 destinations across India and rest of the world. It served as a hub for debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines until 20 October 2012 and serves as a focus city for Jet Airways, JetLite, IndiGo, SpiceJet, and GoAir. Former Air Deccan also had its base at BIA.

Construction

Kempegowda International Airport

The airport project started as a public-private joint venture between Germany's Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, Government of Karnataka and Airports Authority of India (AAI).^[7] Construction began in July 2005, after a decade long postponement. The new airport was originally planned to accommodate 3.5 million passengers a year, but this was redesigned to handle 12 million passengers per year. The redesign resulted in an increase in the size of the terminal, number of aircraft stands, new taxiway layouts and supporting infrastructure.

A plan is being processed for a direct rail service from Bangalore Cantonment Railway Station to the Basement Rail terminal at the airport. Access on the National Highway 7 has been widened to a six-lane expressway.

Kempegowda International Airport was expected to be inaugurated on 30 March 2008, but due to delays in air traffic control (ATC) services, it was finally inaugurated on 23 May 2008 just before midnight when a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai landed. Minutes later an Indian flight to Singapore left Bangalore International Airport, making it the first take-off.

Description

The curbside at BIA

BIA Terminal building at night

Check-in counters in the main hall

Domestic security check area

Passenger terminal

The passenger terminal is a single, fully air conditioned, four-level building capable of accommodating international and domestic operations. The basement houses the retail storage, rest areas and services. The arrival and departure areas are separated vertically with a modern, simple, straight-ahead flow system. The domestic and international departure lounges and the majority of the retail outlets are on level 2 (first floor). The check-in facilities and baggage reclaim are located on level 1 (ground floor). The terminal is designed for ease of operation and minimum maintenance.

The total floor area is approximately 84,000 m² (900,000 sq ft); the terminal building is designed to accommodate 3,000 passengers at peak hour. The design reflects the best industry practice and caters for 24-hour operations, under all weather conditions. Kempegowda International Airport meets the standards set by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).^[4]

The airport can handle 11 million people per annum with 27 aircraft movements per hour and an estimated 550 movements. At its peak, it can handle 720 aircraft movements in a day.

There are Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) enabled check-in counters: 90 and 24 self check-in counters.

The airport has 36 gates, 12 aero-bridges, including three double arm, and 18 remote bus bays. There are 45 aircraft stands, all of which have a fueling pit. This is the first time in Indian airports that the parking stands have fueling pits. The underground pits helps the aircraft to fuel from the stand itself.

In the first phase of development, a car park for 2,000 vehicles in front of the terminal building at the ground level has been developed for the convenience of passengers and visitors.

Hajj terminal

Bangalore International Airport has an exclusive terminal for Hajj pilgrims. This terminal covers an area of 32,400 square metres (349,000 sq ft) and can handle up to 600 passengers at a time. Designated prayer rooms for men and women and separate hot water facilities for Wadu (cleansing before prayers) are available in the terminal.^[8]

Runway

The airport has one runway that can accommodate all types of aircraft. There are plans to build a second runway when the annual traffic reaches 18 million passengers per year which it is currently estimated to reach around 2013–2014.

Retail services and lounges

As well as a range of retail outlets the airport has dedicated departure lounges:^[9]

• Domestic departure lounges are provided by
  • Air India
  • Jet Airways
• International departure lounges include
  • Oberoi Lounge
  • The Leela Lounge

On 21 January 2011, a new VIP departure and arrival lounge was inaugurated. One lounge at level one of the terminal will serve departing domestic and international dignitaries and the other on the ground floor will serve arriving dignitaries.^[8]

Aviation fuel services

The airport has a fuel farm and hydrant system: a 36 kilometres (22 mi) fuel pipeline was commissioned in October 2009 by Indian Oil from Devanagonthi to the airport to reduce the need to transport jet fuel to the airport.^[9]

Cargo village

The cargo village was inaugurated on 9 December 2009. It houses 120 freight forwarders and 80 custom house agents and can accommodate parking of nearly 80 trucks. There are two cargo terminals in the village. One is operated by Menzies Aviation Bobba Pvt Ltd. This terminal has an initial capacity to handle 150,000 metric tons (170,000 short tons) of cargo. The other terminal is operated by Air India SATS Joint Venture consortium. This terminal has a two-floor warehouse with a capacity of 200,000 metric tons (220,000 short tons).

Airlines and destinations

Kingfisher Airlines and Air India aircraft taxiing at Kempegowda International Airport

Passenger airlines

Cargo airlines

Ownership

External video

Terminal 1 expansion video

BIAL is a Public Limited Company under the Companies Act formed to build, own and operate Bangalore International Airport. BIAL has been given rights by the Government of India to develop, design, finance, operate and manage the airport for 30 years from the date of commencement of commercial flight operations. It has an option to extend the right for an additional 30 years.^[14] Private promoters hold a 74% (GVK 43%, Siemens Project Ventures GmbH 26%, and Unique Zurich 5%) stake in BIAL while the government holds the remaining 26% (Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation 13% and Airport Authority of India 13%).^[15][16]

Renaming

On 27 February 2009, the Government of Karnataka forwarded the proposal to the central government to rename the airport after the city's founder, Kempe Gowda I. In 2011, the state government sent another proposal to the central government to name the airport after Kempegowda.^[17] In 2012, the central government accepted the state government's proposal to name the airport after Kempegowda.^[18] On 18 July 2013, the Union Cabinet formally approved the name change.^[19] Finally, the airport was officially renamed on on December 14, 2013. Along with the renaming, new terminal 1A was inaugurated on the same occasion.^[20]

2010 airport expansion plans

On 19 January 2010, BIAL embarked on an expansion plan and fast tracked construction of a new state-of-the-art terminal building.^[21]

• The first phase of construction of the new terminal is expected to cater to passenger traffic of about 15 million per year. There are plans to expand the new terminal to cater to 36 million passengers per year.^[22]
• The existing terminal would be expanded to cater to 17 million passengers per year. Work on the expansion began on 6 June 2011.^[8]
• The expansion would also increase the number of check-in counters and the seating capacity at the waiting areas. Once done, Terminal 1 would sport a brand new look and will be capable of handling the A380 aircraft.^[8][23]
• To reduce the number of flight delays due to fog it is proposed that the runway will be upgraded to Category III B standard. This upgrading will be done when the second runway will be constructed (along with Terminal 2).^{[citation needed]}
• After expansion the terminal will have a floor area of 360,000 m² (3,900,000 sq ft).

Runway repair work

In January 2012, BIAL announced that the airport would remain fully closed to all flight operations from 11 March until 3 April 2012 between 10:30 and 17:30 IST (05:00 UTC to 12:00 UTC) during which the top layer of its only runway was completely replaced. Following this initial phase, the runway was partly closed during phases 2 and 3 until 1 May.^[24][25]

Connectivity

BMTC Volvo buses connecting the city to the airport

The trumpet interchange connecting BIA to NH-7 (Bangalore – Hyderabad road) seen from a landing aircraft.

Road

Taxi services are available to and from the airport.^[26] As an alternative to taxis, passengers can use car rental services.^[27]

Auto rickshaws are not allowed beyond the trumpet interchange leading to the airport, but passengers can get dropped off at the trumpet interchange by an auto rickshaw and then use an airport shuttle bus from the interchange.^[28]

Shuttle service provided by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), connects parts of the city to the airport. This service is known as Vayu Vajra. BMTC runs nine routes using its fleet of Green Volvo buses. These buses make 251 trips in a day. Vayu Vajra is a 24/7 service. All Vayu Vajra services have route numbers designated with a KIAS prefix.^[29][30]

Proposed high speed rail link

As the airport is 40 kilometres (25 mi) outside the city, a new high-speed rail link has been approved to connect it to the city.^[31] The high-speed rail link would be integrated with the Bangalore Metro and would cover a distance of 33 kilometres (21 mi) with four stations: Cubbon Road (Terminal Station), Hebbal, Yelahanka, and Bangalore International Airport (Terminal Station).^[32] The project is expected to cost 6900 crore (US$1.1 billion). Of the 6900 crore (US$1.1 billion), the State Government would contribute 532 crore (US$85 million) (mainly for land acquisition) while the Central Government would contribute 1040 crore (US$170 million).^[33]

Awards and honours

• Even though there was an economic slowdown, BIA managed to keep its traffic base and route network stable. It was hence awarded "The Routes Asia Airport Marketing Award" chosen among five others in the Indian subcontinent.^[34]
• At the Emerging Markets Airports Awards 2010, held in Dubai, BIA was awarded "The Best Emerging Airport in Indian sub-continent."^[35][36]
• It received a platinum certification from IATA in January 2010 for becoming "The first airport in India to be 100% Bar Coded Boarding Passes (BCBP) compliant."^[8]
• At the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2010 held at Delhi, BIA was awarded "The Best Managed Airport in India."^[37]

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bengaluru International Airport.

• Official site
• BMTC Airport Shuttle Bus Services