With the fast pace at which the city’s air travel has been expanding, Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) is all geared up to launch Terminal 3 while aiming to make it the most preferred airport to travel across the world. Bengaluru airport’s “Terminal in a Garden” (T2) will now handle the city’s international operations while Terminal 1 has been allocated solely for domestic travel.
In an exclusive interview with News18, BIAL’s MD and CEO Hari Marar said that the airport is expected to see over 40 million passengers flying in and out by the end of this year. Edited excerpts:
How is this going to ease the pressure on Terminal 1 as well given the growing passenger footfall?
This is a big day as the entire international operations have moved from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. As it moves into Terminal 2, we have created plenty of capacity. Today we have 4.5 million passengers a year travelling internationally. We have a built-up capacity of 10 million, which means we have plenty of headroom for the anticipated growth of the airport. This is great as Bengaluru deserves that kind of connectivity, and we are ready with the capacity. So as long as the airline companies are ready to bring their flights in, we are ready to welcome them. At the same time, on the Terminal 1 side, it decants that terminal. The entire space that is there for that terminal gets reconfigured, becomes domestic, and in turn gives a lot of capacity and headroom for major airlines like IndiGo, Akasa, and SpiceJet to grow further in the domestic terminal. There is plenty of capacity for all airlines to grow in our terminals now.
Terminal 2, which has been pitched as one-of-a-kind with its seamless connectivity, uses IoT, setting standards globally. Do you think passengers also benefit more as other airports in India are also on their way to catching up with Bengaluru’s airport standards?
This will ease travel to a very large extent. Our network of carriers has both their domestic and international operations out of Terminal 2. So whether it is domestic to international to international and vice versa, or international to international, we have made sure that all these transit connectivities have been made very seamless. Today, as of now, T1 to T2 connectivity happens through inter-terminal coaches. Over a period of time, we plan to connect both these terminals as well. All in all, between these two terminals, we are trying to create an environment for any airline to establish a hub for their connectivity.
The long queues of passengers that we see at the airport, will that now be eased with T2 handling international operations?
Typically queues are a function of demand and capacity. Let’s see if the demand is far in excess of the capacity, then we see a queue. If airports are designed to capacity, we allocate slots to airlines so that the demand and capacity are matched. If all goes to plan, as you know, rarely does, then there will be no queuing. But you cannot take away the fact that there would be cancellations, delays, and later arrivals, which are all part and parcel of the game as far as aviation is concerned. In Terminal 2, we have created plenty of spare capacity and I have not seen queues here and don’t expect to see them for a very long time. But all this is subject to delays and weather conditions as well.
This is where T2’s uniqueness, ‘Terminal in a Garden’, comes into play where the environment and unique restaurants and retail establishments will help you to spend your time better, all the while you ‘breathe easy’. By creating a healthy and nice environment inside the airport, people can get the best of all worlds. I have read this saying somewhere, ‘The heart of a man can be cold and hard somewhere but not amidst nature.’ This is the atmosphere of nature that we give you here along with the artwork that makes you feel calm and relaxed. We have 60 selected works of art by renowned artists that will also make you pause, relax, and reflect.
How much has Bengaluru airport’s capacity changed in the past couple of years?
The previously stated capacity of Bengaluru airport was 26 million, but it is stretchable. We are actually stretching the capacity a little bit, and that is the best way to bring down the cost per person, stretched to a little over 30 million. Both these terminals put together, international and domestic, have a capacity of between 55-60 million. Capacity is always expressed in terms of peak hour, but if you want me to crunch it as an annual number, I would say it is 55 to 60 million passengers a year. This year we will touch 40 million, and with 50 per cent spare capacity, we are in a good place.
Has business for the Bengaluru airport been affected because of the Ukraine-Russia war, especially with long-haul flights?
If the Russia-Ukraine war was not on, we would have started our USA direct flights with US Airways and American Airlines. We hope that should happen soon. We know that some of the European airlines like Lufthansa have already announced their flight to Frankfurt and are adding another flight to Munich. We will see more and more flights getting added to Bengaluru’s list. Having said this, I would not like to jump the gun, but we are in talks with other airlines. My sense is that from the current 4.5 million passengers per year, 5 years from now, Bengaluru should touch 10 million passengers per year. Doubling our international volume is what all of us are aiming for. Bengaluru deserves this kind of connectivity, and if there is any city that needs to be connected to the world, it is this city.
Are two terminals enough for Bengaluru?
In the long run, actually not. We have plans for a third terminal, and we have space reserved for it as well. That is the advantage of master planning a terminal. Our master plan shows how this airport is going to look 40 years from now. It is being built backward. What you see today is just phase 1 of Terminal 2. Phase 2 will expand the terminal on the on-site terminal, making T2 alone a 50 million passenger capacity terminal. Then when this is exhausted, we will build terminal three, and all three will be connected in a U-shape.
On a lighter note, have you had any interesting experiences with passengers at the airport?
In my 17 years of being associated with the Bengaluru airport, there has never been a dull moment. One of the most fascinating things about being in an airport is just sitting around and watching people as they pass by. The airport has become a microcosm of life itself, and I have seen everything from births to deaths and everything in between. From marriages to proposals to rejections, happiness to dejection to divorces. I have seen it all happen right here.
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