The Hindu Business Line : Bangalore’s new airport gears up for Rs 2,500-cr expansion

Take-off time: Mr Albert Brunner, Chief Executive Officer, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), interacting with newspersons at Devanahalli near Bangalore on Thursday.

Our Bureau

Bangalore, Feb. 21 Even as the new Bengaluru International Airport is almost set for flight on March 30, its promoters are gearing up for round 2: expansion worth around Rs 2,500 crore over the next three years.

The airport project that began in July 2005 is putting the finishing touches to construction; it is getting two to four domestic airlines to do pre-launch test flights possibly between March 7 and 15.

Mr Albert Brunner, CEO of the airport company Bangalore International Airport Ltd, said the new airport being built by the Siemens-L&T-Unique Zurich consortium would cater to 10 million passengers in the first year. With traffic expected to grow 30-35 per cent by 2010, expansion had become a necessity.

Initially, the second runway was not foreseen for 10-15 years – or until 2013. Now that was being advanced to 2010-11 along with an expanded terminal building. A clear picture of the expansion would emerge by the year-end, Mr Brunner said. He said 95 per cent of the work on the infrastructure and IT side is over. The airport will have 54 counters on the ground and first floor for check-ins and baggage.

User development fee of Rs 675 for domestic departures and Rs 955 for international departures would stay, as per the concession agreement. The UDF would refinance the promoter investment.

The Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Stefan Widrig, said the user fee would be reviewed after five years by the aviation regulator. BIAL may take six to seven years to break even, Mr Brunner said. The cost has grown from Rs 1,412 crore at the signing of the concession agreement in 2005 to Rs 1,930 crore for redesign; and another fresh addition has now taken the cost to Rs 2,530 crore. He turned down keeping the HAL airport open saying it was needless, inconvenient and financially not feasible.

More brand outlets

The airport will sport two mono brand stores at the international terminal: Bangalorean Deepika Govind’s designer wear and watches and writing instruments at the Ethos Watches outlet.

At the domestic side, Carbon Accessories will showcase its creations. LaModa’s fashion apparel and accessories, including Tommy Hilfiger; Odyssey’s books, music, gifts, toys and flowers will also come up.

Three food & beverage operators have been chosen. Radhakrishna Hospitality Services South Indian delicacies, KaatiZone and Gangotree for North Indian food; and Subway and Baskin Robbins for international fare. Earlier, concessionaires include HMS Host and Café Coffee Day.

Thomas Cook and TT Forex have been selected for foreign exchange services.

On course

•Air India flights to Singapore and Dubai would be the first departures out of Bangalore on the midnight of March 30.

•A 50 per cent cut on the user development fee for the first two months to discount airlines that have sold the tickets for this period.

•Kingfisher, Simplifly Deccan, both Bangalore players, besides Air India and Jet are expected to be part of the pre-launch test flights next month.

•Dragon Air to fly in daily from Hong Kong from May. Kingfisher may begin San Francisco flights in August.

•Among airlines that have made requests are Oman Air for six flights a week; Singapore, Etihaad Emirates and Air India want to increase frequencies.

•BIAL would handle 440 peak season movements a day by August.

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