Bengaluru International Airport

Infobox Airport
name = Bengaluru International Airport
nativename =
nativename-a = ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಅಂತಾರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ವಿಮಾನ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣ
nativename-r =


image-width =
caption =

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image2-width = 250
caption2 = Bangalore Airport terminal building
IATA = BLR
ICAO = VOBL
type = Public
owner-oper = Bengaluru International Airport Ltd. (BIAL)
city-served = Bengaluru, India
location = Devanahalli, Karnataka, India
elevation-f =
elevation-m =
coordinates = Coord|13|11|52.4|N|77|42|22.8|E|type:airport
website = [http://www.bengaluruairport.com/ www.bengaluruairport.com]
metric-elev =
metric-rwy =
r1-number = 09/27
r1-length-f = 13,517
r1-length-m = 4,120 [ [http://www.bengaluruairport.com/bial_docs/images/graphics/Master_Plan.jpgRevised Master Plan] ]
r1-surface = Asphalt

Bengaluru International Airport (Kannada:ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ಅಂತಾರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ ವಿಮಾನ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣ)airport codes|BLR|VOBL is a convert|4050|acre|km2|abbr=on international airport serving the city of Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The airport is located in Devanahalli, which is convert|50|km|mi|abbr=on from the city. It replaced the old HAL Bangalore International Airport. Construction of the airport began in July 2005, after a decade long postponement. It was expected to be inaugurated on March 30 2008 but due to delays in air traffic control (ATC) services, it started its operations on the night of 23 May 2008, just before midnight.

Bangalore Airport has been ranked at 4th spot much ahead of fellow competitors namely Calcutta Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport(7th spot) Chennai International Airport(14th Spot) and New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport(25th spot) in a statistics regarding the "Top 25 fastest growing airports 2007" worldwide with a 33.8% increase in the passenger traffic, according to the World Airport Traffic 2007 report released by the Airports Council International. It is way ahead of the rival Hyderabad International Airport which is at 10th spot. [ [http://www.aci.aero/aci/aci/file/Press%20Releases/2008/Interesting%20Stats_2007.pdf World Airport Traffic 2007 - Official Release] ] .

Future plans for the airport site envisage expansion of the terminal and runways and generous commercial development, including business centers, tax-free shops, entertainment centers, malls and office space.

Construction

The new airport was originally planned to accommodate 3.5 million passengers a year, but this has now been redesigned to handle 12 million passengers. 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 also 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 is being widened to a six lane expressway, with a convert|3|ft|m boundary wall, as construction moves ahead.

A new expressway was planned to connect the airport to the city's Ring Road. The expressway, expected to be a tolled road, would begin at Hennur on the Outer Ring Road. However the State government, citing a study report of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), has told the Karnataka High Court that the proposed super expressway connecting the Outer Ring Road and Bangalore International Airport (BIA) is not feasible.

Location: The Bangalore / Bengaluru International Airport is located 35km (21 miles) North of Bangalore city center (M.G Road) and off National Highway 7 (Bangalore-Hyderabad Highway). Note: For directions to Hebbal and from there take the Bangalore-Hyderabad NH7.

Airport specifications

Terminal

The passenger terminal is a single, fully air-conditioned, two-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 located 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 convert|71000|m2|sqft|abbr=on. The terminal building is designed to accommodate 2,733 passengers at peak hour. The design reflects the best industry practice and caters for 24-hour-operations, under all weather conditions. All facilities provided will meet IATA standards.

The airport can handle 12 million people per annum with 30 aircraft movement per hour and an estimated 440 movement in May 2008.

Common Use Terminal Equipment (CUTE) enabled check-in counters: 53 and 18 self check in counters.

The airport has 20 gates, 8 aero-bridges, including one double arm and 9 remote bus bays. There are a total of 42 aircraft stands, all of which have a fueling pit. This is the first time in Indian airports that the parking stands have the 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 cars in front of the terminal building at the ground level has been developed for the convenience of passengers and visitors to the airport.

Runway

The airport has one runway as of now. The runway can accommodate all types of aircraft including the Airbus A380. There are plans to build a second runway when the annual traffic of the airport reaches 18 million passengers per year which is currently estimated to reach around 2013-2014.

The runway, orientated 09/27, is convert|4120|m|ft|abbr=on|sigfig=5 by convert|45|m|ft|abbr=on with light light paved shoulders making it convert|60|m|ft|abbr=on.

ATC frequencies in use

The frequencies in use at BLR are:

Most aircraft move to Chennai ATC airspace immediately before or after Bangalore. Chennai ATC is operated on 119.5 MHz.

Miscellaneous

Cost: Rs 2,470 crore (approx. $600 Million USD)A User Development Fee of Rs. 1070 will be collected from all outbound international passengers using the Bengaluru International Airport. The User Development Fee is towards the cost for construction and operation of the airport and has been approved by the Ministry of Civil Aviation of India. [http://www.bengaluruairport.com/portal/page/portal/BIAL_PageGroup/BIAL_DEP_HOME]

Airport service providers

Retail and duty free

The international departure section is designed to host one of the largest duty free outlets in India, selling the best of international liquor, tobacco, luxury and premium perfumes, cosmetics, souvenirs, gifts, arts and crafts from local artisans, exclusive electronics outlets, books, music, local and international fashion, apparel, jewellery and accessories.

The arrival duty free outlet offers liquor and tobacco, perfumes and cosmetics, electronics outlets and accessories. The arrival duty free has been designed keeping in mind increasing security regulations.

The domestic departures includes a Shoppers' Stop department store, a Crossword book store, electronics outlets, a confectionery store that sells sweets and chocolates from India and abroad, as well as shops for books, music, fashion, apparel, jewelery and accessories.

Food

*Curbside Retail and Food and Beverage (F&B): Radha Krishna Hospitality Services (RKHS) - South Indian cuisine
*Subway and Baskin-Robbins: Continental food
*KaatiZone and Gangotree Chats: North Indian cuisine
*Odyssey: magazines, gifts, flowers

Domestic Retail and F&B

*Retail: Shoppers' Stop, La Moda, Life’s Spirit, Crossword, Carbon jewelry, Mithaas
*F&B: Taste of India, Time-out bar, Barista bar, Cookieman

International Retail and F&B

*Retail and Duty Free: Spirit of India, Crossword, Sound & Vision, Deepika Govind and Ethos watches
*F&B: Kingfisher Sports Bar with Pizza Hut and Illy Café.

Foreign Exchange

*Thomas Cook
*TT Forex

Main F&B operators

*HMS Host
*Café Coffee Day

Domestic Lounges

*Air India
*Jet Airways
*Kingfisher Airlines

International Lounges

*Kingfisher
*Oberoi
*The Leela

Ground handling

*GlobeGround India
*Consortium of Air India and Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS)

Flight catering

*LSG Sky Chefs
*Taj SATS

Cargo handling

*Consortium of Air India and Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS)
*Consortium of Bobba Group and Menzies Aviation

Aviation fuel facility

*Consortium of Skytanking and Indian Oil Corporation

Into plane fueling services

*Consortium of Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and ST Airport Services Pvt Ltd (STARS)
*Consortium of Skytanking and Indian Oil Corporation

Hospitality

A 321 room five star hotel has been proposed as part of the airport complex, opposite the main terminal building. This hotel, owned and operated jointly by Oberoi Hotels and Larsen & Toubro under the Trident Hilton brand, is scheduled for opening in November 2008. It will comprise extensive business facilities in addition to three restaurants, a lounge bar, banquet room and health spa. Oberoi Hotels is the second largest hospitality operator in India, while Larsen & Toubro is India's largest private sector construction major. The hotel has been designed by architects RSP India, while interiors and landscaping has been designed by P Associates of Bangkok. The project is currently under construction.

Transport to the airport

As the new airport is Convert|40|km|mi|abbr=on outside the city, a new high-speed rail link is being planned to connect the city to the airport. Namma Metro is expected to launch commercial operations from March 2010. [cite web | title= BMRC's smart plans for Metro Project |work=|url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/07/14/stories/2007071452890500.htm]

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation runs eleven bus routes from as many locations in the city to connect to the new airport. They are more costly than the usual buses. [cite web | title= BMTC bus services for Bengaluru Airport |work=|url=http://www.bmtcinfo.com/english/bial.html] By Road, you can reach BIAL through Hebbal via Bellary Road, through NH-Yelahanka people can also reach BIAL through Yelahanka via Vidyaranyapura where traffic is quite less. BMTC has 46 Volvo buses plying to the airport, and the number of buses on each route ensures a frequency of less than 30 minutes. The buses are equipped with luggage racks, and can carry up to 30 passengers on each trip. Tickets may be booked online as well.

Official transportation by BIAL:
*MeruCabs and Easycabs for taxi services
*Hertz and Akbar Travels for luxury transport services
*BMTC Vayu Vajra A/C Volvo buses
*BMTC Suvarna and Vahini non A/C buses

Media in Bangalore City have carried out several campaigns to highlight the lack of connectivity to the new airport without yielding any results as it fell on deaf ears of the authorities. As the road to airport for a short distance appears to be 3-lanes on each directions with reflectors embedded into the road surface, it is pretty obvious that the road width is just sufficient only for 2-lanes instead of 3-lanes, making it very narrow and unsafe lanes for motorists. Traffic build-up can at times increase travel time from the city-center to up to 3 hours, moderate traffic on the road after midnight to 6 am allows travel time of an hour.

A series of fatal accidents on this road led the Bangalore City Traffic Police to deploy Interceptors that monitor vehicular speeds using high resolution video cameras. Overspeeding vehicles (above 80km/h) are stopped and fined immediately.

Airlines and destinations

City

*Deccan Aviation (Electronic City, Whitefield, HAL (old airport), Palace Grounds, UB city (after helipad passes tests))

Domestic

*Air India (Mumbai)
**Indian (Cochin, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai)
*IndiGo (Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Vadodara)
*Jet Airways (Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Trivandrum)
**Jet Lite (Ahmedabad, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai)
*Kingfisher Airlines (Agatti, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hubli, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Trivandrum, Vadodara)
**Kingfisher Red (Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Bellary, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Tirupati, Trichy, Vijaywada, Visakhapatnam)
*Paramount Airways (Visakhapatnam, Chennai , Coimbatore)
*SpiceJet (Ahmedabad, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune)

International

*Air Arabia (Sharjah)
*Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
*Air India
**Indian (Dubai, Malé, Muscat, Sharjah, Singapore)
*Air Mauritius (Mauritius)
*British Airways (London-Heathrow)
*Dragonair (Hong Kong)
*Emirates Airline (Dubai)
*Gulf Air (Bahrain)
*Jet Airways (Brussels) [Begins October 31, 2008]
*Kingfisher Airlines (London-Heathrow, San Francisco [begins November 1] [http://www1.economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Transportation/Kingfisher_plans_flight_to_San_Francisco_from_Nov_1/articleshow/3437990.cms] )
*Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
*Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur)
*Oman Air (Muscat)
*Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
*SriLankan Airlines (Colombo)
*Thai Airways International (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi)
*Tiger Airways (Singapore)

Cargo airlines

*Air France Cargo (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
*Air India Cargo (Frankfurt, Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
*Alitalia Cargo (Rome)
*Blue Dart Aviation (Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi)
*British Airways World Cargo (London-Heathrow)
*Emirates SkyCargo (Dubai)
*Etihad Crystal Cargo (Abu Dhabi)
*Gulf Cargo (Bahrain)
*Jet Airways (Delhi)
*Jett8 Airlines Cargo (Singapore, Amsterdam, Malmo)
*Lufthansa Cargo (Frankfurt)
*MASkargo (Kuala Lumpur)
*Qatar Airways Cargo (Doha)
*Singapore Airlines Cargo (Singapore, Brussels)
*SriLankan Cargo (Colombo)
*Thai Airways Cargo (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi)
*Transmile Air Services (Kuala Lumpur)

References

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