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Bengaluru International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Bangalore. The airport is located 4 km south of Devanahalli and is 40 km from the central business district of Bangalore, (30 km from the Bangalore City Railway Station ) and covers 5130 acre. It replaced the HAL airport. For the financial year 2011–12, it was the fourth-busiest airport in the country in terms of overall passenger traffic of 12.69 million and fifth-busiest in terms of international passenger traffic. It has been awarded "India's best airport" for the year 2011 by the survey conducted by Skytrax.

The airport handled about 12.6 million passengers and had air traffic movements (ATM) of about 330 per day in the year 2011. The airport is expected to handle 18 million passengers in the year 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 and served as a hub for debt ridden Kingfisher Airlines until October 20,2012 and serves as a focus city for IndiGo, SpiceJet, GoAir. Former Air Deccan, too had its base at BIA.

Construction
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). Construction of the airport 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 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 has been widened to a six lane expressway.

The 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 here. Also, minutes later an Indian flight to Singapore left Bangalore International Airport, making it the first ever take-off from the airport.

Description




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 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 84000 m2 and 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. The airport well meets the standards set by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 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.

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 a total of 45 aircraft stands, all of which have a fuelling pit. This is the first time in Indian airports that the parking stands have the fuelling 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.

Hajj terminal
Bangalore International Airport has an exclusive terminal for Hajj pilgrims. This terminal covers an area of 32400 m2 and can handle up to 600 passengers at a given time. Designated prayer rooms for men and women and separate hot water facilities for Wadu (cleansing before prayers) are available in the terminal.

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 of the airport reaches 18 million passengers per year which is currently estimated to reach around 2013–2014.

Retail services and lounges
As well as a range of retail outlets the airport has a number of dedicated departure lounges:


 * Domestic departure lounges are provided by
 * Air India
 * International departure lounges include
 * Oberoi Lounge
 * The Leela Lounge

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

Aviation fuel services
The airport has a Fuel Farm and Hydrant System of the airport, a 36 km 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.

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 of the terminals is operated by Menzies Aviation Bobba Pvt Ltd. This terminal has an initial capacity to handle 150000 MT 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 200000 MT.

Ownership
BIAL is a Public Limited Company under the Companies Act formed to build, own and operate the Bangalore International Airport. BIAL has been given rights by the Government of India to develop, design, finance, operate and manage the airport for a period of 30 years from the date of commencement of commercial flight operations. It also has an option to extend the right for an additional 30 years. 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%).

Renaming
On the 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. The Karnataka arm of the Indian National Congress had also sent a letter to the central government requesting that the airport be renamed to Kempe Gowda International Airport.

In 2011, the state government sent another proposal to the central government to name the airport after Kempegowda.

In 2012, the central government accepted the state government's proposal to name the airport after Kempegowda.

2010 airport expansion plans
On 19 January 2010, BIAL embarked on expansion plan and fast tracked construction of a new state of the art terminal building.


 * The first phase of construction of the new terminal is expected to cater to passenger traffic of about 15 million per year. There are also plans to expand the new terminal to cater to 36 million passengers per year.
 * The existing terminal would be expanded to cater to 17 million passengers per year. Work on the expansion began on 6 June 2011.
 * 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.
 * 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).
 * After expansion the terminal will have a floor area of 360000 m2.

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.

Road
Taxi services are available for passengers commuting to and from the airport. An alternative to Taxis passengers can use car rental services.

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 to the airport.

Airport shuttle service provided by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), connects various parts of the city to the airport. This service is known as Vayu Vajra. BMTC runs a total of eleven routes using its fleet of Volvo buses. These buses make a total of 251 trips in a day. Vayu Vajra is a 24/7 service. All Vayu Vajra services have route numbers designated with a BIAS prefix.

Proposed high speed rail link
As the airport is 40 km outside the city, a new high-speed rail link has been approved to connect the city to the airport. The high speed rail link would be integrated with the Bangalore Metro and would cover a distance of 33 km with four stations: Cubbon Road (Terminal Station), Hebbal, Yelahanka, and Bangalore International Airport (Terminal Station). The project is expected to cost. Of the, the State Government would contribute (mainly for land acquisition) while the Central Government would contribute.

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 other airports in the Indian sub-continent.
 * At the Emerging Markets Airports Awards 2010, held in Dubai, BIA was awarded The Best Emerging Airport in Indian sub-continent.
 * 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.
 * At the CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2010 held at Delhi, BIA was awarded The Best Managed Airport in India.