I was in Bangalore ( now Bengaluru ) for a day for some personal work and had pleasure of traveling through newly opened Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahalli, which is 40 km from the city, begun its operations on 24th May 2008 after Govt. clearance. Initially I was booked on Indigo flight to Mumbai which was operating through the HAL airport (old airport) but I got SMS as well as call from the airline intimating me that I have to travel through the new airport.

All though I was not impressed with the time it takes to reach the airport from main city but on reaching the location I was taken by big surprise. The new BIAL Airport is of International standard housing wide range of facilities and services for national as well as international passengers. According to my self speculation, it is one of the finest airport we have in India so far. Bengaluru International Airport really leaps over its close rivals Mumbai and New Delhi airports namely.

I was stranded at the airport for hours as it was the first day of airport’s operation, the air traffic was in a pretty bad shape and many flights were delayed for hours. I can happily say that I feel very proud to travel on its first day of operation.

Please check out some low quality shots which I took with my Nokia 6300 phone before the battery died.

Fast Facts

Location
The airport is 40 kilometres from the center of Bangalore.

Opened
Officially opened: May 24, 2008
First day of operations: May 24, 2008

Operational
Operational 24 hours a day
365 days a year

Land area
Spread over an area of approximately 4000 acres

Employees
Over 4000 employees are currently employed at the airport, including BIAL and concessionaire employees and

Terminal
Single, fully air-conditioned, two-level building capable of accommodating 2733 international and domestic passengers at peak hour is spread over 71,000 square meters.

Passengers
The current airport infrastructure is designed to handle over 11 million passenger movements annually. Once the final master plan has been achieved, it can accommodate upto 50 million passenger movements annually.

IT Systems
RESA CUTE, BRS, UFIS,SAP Based Aviation billingPC and 2D barcode based Boarding Gate Systems

Car parks
Phase 1: approximately 2000 vehicles and 75 coaches

Check in counters
Cute enabled check in desks: 53
Self Check-in kiosks (CUSS): 18

Boarding gates/ aerobridges
Total boarding gates: 20
Aerobridges: 8 (one double arm aerobridge)
9 bus bays for arrival and departure

Security counters
Domestic: 8 Airport Security Units (APSU), 1 X-Ray per APSU
International: 5 APSU’s; 1 X-Ray per APSU
Five level security screening system for checked baggage

Immigration counters
Departure: 18 , Arrival: 18

Baggage Carousels
Total 7 carousels: 3 for domestic and 2 for international arrivals; in addition
2 carousels can be used for domestic or international
Length - 2 x 59 meters; 3 x 53 meters; 2 x 97 meters

Aircraft
1350 domestic flights and 245 international flights are processed every week on average

Runway
Runway orientation 09/27
Runway length 4000 m
Width 45 m
Width of runway plus light paved shoulders 60 m
CAT 1ILS on both ends of the runway

Aprons
The layout of the apron and terminal has been designed to reflect international standards. Initial phase includes 42 code C aircraft stands

Taxiways
Code E aircraft, two high speed exit taxiways
Bituminous structural pavement width of 25m (code F)
Width of taxiway plus unpaved shoulder width of 45 m

Boarding gates/ aerobridges
Total boarding gates: 20
Aerobridges:8 (One double arm aerobridge)
9 bus bays for arrival and departure

Cargo
A dedicated bay in the terminal apron is earmarked for freight aircraft. Cargo warehouses have the capacity to handle approximately 350’000 tons of cargo annually.

Air Rescue and Firefighting services
The airport provides CAT-9 level of protection as per ICAO standards to enable all the largest commercial aircrafts operated in the country currently.124 inclusive fire fighters and officers. Trained by trainers from Austria and Zurich airport fire chief.

Fire tenders 4
4 Airfield Crash Fire Tenders imported from Rosenbauer, Austria.

Airlines - International
Air Mauritius, Malaysia Airlines, Tiger Airways, Oman Air, Air France, British Airways, Air Arabia, Gulf Air, Dragon Air, Lufthansa, Srilankan Airlines, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air India, Kingfisher Airlines, Emirates, Indian, Quikjet, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Transmile

Airlines - Domestic
Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways, Indian Airlines, Alliance Air, Go Air, JetLite, Indigo, Spice Jet, Paramount Airways, Air Deccan, Blue Dart