HAL Airport

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HAL Bangalore International Airport (IATA: BLR, ICAO: VOBG), also known as HAL Airport or Hindustan Airport, is the domestic and international airport serving Bangalore, Karnataka, India. It is the fourth busiest airport in India next only to Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai airports. It handled an estimated 7.5 million passengers a year as of 2006 and an average of at least 300 flights (take-offs and landings) per day, earning an estimated Rs 1-1.5 billion in landing and aircraft parking fees from scheduled airlines.

The airport is maintained by Hindustan Aeronautics which uses it to test and develop aircraft for the Indian Armed Forces. Manufacturing and overhauling of such aircraft has averaged nearly one per day (on a company-wide, All-India basis) over the 40 year life span of the firm. Thus this activity, per se, may not have posed an insuperable barrier to the rapid growth of civilian air traffic at HAL airport. However, rapid growth of traffic at Bangalore Airport has reportedly^{[weasel words]} had some (so far relatively minor) impact on military training flight schedules at the Indian Air Force base of Yelahanka, a scant 17 km away. Bangalore airport supposedly^{[weasel words]} gives priority to civilian flight movements.

Overview

Originally set up by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in 1964, mainly for defence purposes, operations were extended for domestic commercial flights in the 1980s while the airport started to serve international destinations in 1997. In the past decade, the airport has gone through a series of expansions and upgradations to keep pace with the growing civilian air traffic in the city. While the rated capacity of the airport is 3.6 million passengers per year it is currently operating at a super saturated level of 7.5 million. Reportedly HAL requested airlines to discontinue the addition of flights to and from Bangalore some time ago.

In the mid 1990s, friction started to arise between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Hindustan Aeronautics. AAI wanted more control over airport management which HAL refused, citing national security concerns. The HAL airport is the site of much of HAL's test and research facility. Currently, more than 50% of the Indian Air Force fleet consists of aircraft manufactured by HAL. The airport's management issue also caused contention between the Indian Ministry of Defence and the Civil Aviation Ministry. Thus turf wars may have been the major problem, and not over-riding operational factors. In 2005, a private consortium in which AAI was a minority shareholder, finally started construction on new Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL). Once complete, BIAL will replace HAL airport as Bangalore's international and domestic airport while HAL airport will serve only as a test and research facility for HAL. The new airport is about 35 km from Bangalore and a new 6-lane highway is being built to access it. Travel time is estimated at about an hour. Hence low cost airlines are making strong representations to the Civil Aviation Minister to let them continue to use the more conveniently located HAL airport despite the contractual obligation to close down the airport's civil enclave.

Land side structure

There are separate check in sections for domestic and international departures, and separate sections for domestic and international arrivals. The airport has 2 aerobridges and preference on using the aerobridges is given to international flights.

HAL Airport is relatively close to the city centre (12 km). A taxi ride from the airport to the city centre, in peak hour traffic takes between 1/2 - 1 hour.

Domestic

The domestic departures section is on the left side of the airport (East side), while the domestic & international arrivals is on he right side of the airport (West side).

Departures

For domestic departures, check in is located at two ends of the terminal - Gate 1 - for Indian Airlines, Go Air and Kingfisher Airlines, while Gate 2 gives access to Jet Airways, Air Deccan, Spice Jet, Jagsons, Air Sahara and Paramount.

There is generally a huge queue for baggage screening (the queue forms outside the terminal for Go Air and Air Deccan), and once done you'd proceed to the check-in counters.

The domestic departures terminal has a book shop, a couple of phone booths, a snack shop, post office and limited seating area. On the first floor, there's a restaurant that popular as a place to sit down with a beer while waiting for a flight.

Arrivals

There are 3 belts which are shared by all the airlines that use this terminal.

International

Departures

International Departure is now located on the ground floor of the airport. In 2006, there's been a further revamp and extension of the International departures part of the airport. There are 2-3 baggage X-Ray machines, out of which typically only one is in service, resulting in long queues (often 45 minutes) for baggage screening. Once done with check in, passengers take an escalator to the first floor and pass through immigration. Following immigration, passengers pass through customs control (which is optional), and then go through security screening. Once past security screening, passengers move to the gate hold area - which is common to all international departures, and has very limited seating. The gate area has a coffee shop and curio shop, and completely fills up during peak departure times (10 pm to 1:30 am every night).

As of October 2006, there is often a long line to get into the international departures terminal of the airport during late-night peak hours. This delay starts with there often being only 1 functioning x-ray machine - which all check-in baggage must pass through. Once past the checked-in baggage x-ray - there is a queue for checking in. This is not a problem if flying Business/First class, but is generally quite long for the economy class (30-45 min). Once past check-in, passengers typically pass through immigration in 5-10 minutes, through the hand baggage security screening after immigration can take 20-30 minutes. With all these possible lines, passengers are well advised to arrive at least 3 hours early if flying Economy Class, and 2 hours early if flying Business/First.

The international departures section does not have a lounge for Business or First Class passengers. Air France ask all premium customers to check-in at the Leela Palace Kempinski Hotel near by, and use the hotel facilities as a pre-departure lounge.

In 2001 - 2002 a major Revamp of the International Departure was conducted. the Staff were given training in English and Customer Service. The Immigration counters were spruced up and this resulted in a smoother happier and quicker movement of passengers.

Arrivals

International arrivals starts on the first floor with the immigration counters. Once done with immigration, passengers take an escalator down to the baggage belts, but must first get all hand-baggage screened (x-ray) by the immigration department. There are 2 baggage belts, but space is limited and the whole baggage claim area is cramped. There is also a duty free counter and a money exchange service in the same area. After collecting baggage, passengers pass through customs control, and out to the pre-paid taxi counter (run by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation).

Passengers connecting to domestic flights need to collect their bags, pass through customs, exit from the international arrivals, and turn right to the domestic departures area. The international and domestic terminals are all in the same building, hence connecting is very convenient.

Air side structure

HAL Airport has one runway, oriented to 90/270 degrees. There are 4 entry/exit taxi-ways, 2 on the east side called E2 (perimeter) and E1. Similarly there are 2 taxi-ways to the west side - W2 (perimeter) and W1.

There are now 5 aprons, apron 1 through apron 5. Apron 1 is the main apron, and has 10 parking bays. Bay 5 and bay 6 correspond to the 2 aerobridges. Apron 5 was opened in 2006 and has 5 bays.

ATC frequencies in use

The frequencies normally in use at BLR are:

ATC Frequencies at BLR
	Call Sign	Used for	Frequency
1	Bangalore Tower	Runway to 6,000 feet	123.5 Mhz
2	Bangalore Radar	6,000 feet to 12,000 feet	127.7 Mhz
3	Bangalore Radar (not used during off-peak hours)	Used as an intermediate step between the Tower (123.5) and Radar (127.7)	120.6 Mhz
4	Bangalore Ground (not used during off-peak hours)	Ground movement - off runway	121.95 Mhz
5	Bangalore ATIS	Information	128.25 Mhz

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

Airport upgrades

Ongoing talks have taken place since the early 1990s for upgrading Bangalore's airport to international standards and building a new airport at Devenahalli. The unprecedented growth of private low cost air carriers since 2003 has left the authorities with logistical nightmares in the terminal in supporting day to day operations. Low cost carriers like Air Deccan have made Bangalore a major hub, with flights connecting to smaller cities like Mangalore and Belgaum. The Bangalore-Mumbai route is growing into the second busiest in the country, second only to Mumbai-Delhi.

HAL intends to make optimal utilisation of the resources at the airport after the civilian operations shift to the upcoming international airport at Devanahalli on the outskirts of the city in mid-2008, HAL chairman told reporters.

'Apart from maintaining the airport for our test flights, military operations and VIP flights, we intend to set up an MRO facility to service the growing number of civilian aircraft, operated by public and private airlines in the domestic and international sectors,' he said.

There are varied reports about HAL's plans for MRO at the airport. HAL was said to be close to signing an agreement with Pratt & Whitney, Canada to launch maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations at the airport. Earlier the foreign company had signed long term agreements with Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines for engine maintenance. The plan was to set up an MRO base for 150 engines by mid-07 and start with 50 per year. HAL are also reportedly in dialogues with Airbus as well as ATR for setting up a MRO facility at the airport. Once the upcoming international airport in Devenhalli becomes operational, HAL plans to use the existing airport for certification of HAL's own aircraft too.

Completely building a new airport (as opposed to upgrading the current HAL airport) eventually won out with the new Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) finally being realized in principle. Construction of the new airport began on July 2, 2005 and commercial operation is planned to begin in April 2008. Originally, this airport was to be able to handle 4-5 million passengers annually, with a single runway (13200 ft in length). However, given the sharp increase in passenger traffic in 2005, the airport has been redesigned so that its terminals will be able to handle 11 million passengers in the first phase, and will open, as scheduled, in April 2008. The cost of this change is estimated at Rs 4.5 billion and is funded by the private consortium.

Incidents and Accidents

14 Feb 1990, [1] Indian Airlines A320 crashed, 92 fatalities
28 Dec 1996, [2] Blue Dart Aviation B737 made a heavy, off-center landing causing damage to the aircraft and runway
12 Feb 2004, [3] Helicopter crashes
26 Oct 2005, [4] Mig 21 crashes
11 Mar 2006, [5] Air Deccan ATR 72 makes a heavy landing
04 May 2006, [6] Transmile Air Services 727-2F2F suffered an explosion to the left wing fuel tank
21 Aug 2006, [7] Kiran Mark II trainer aircraft crashes

Airlines and destinations

Domestic

Air Deccan (Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Bellary, Calicut, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hampi, Hubli, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Vizag)
Air India
Air Sahara (Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Pune)
Go Air (Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai)
Indian Airlines (Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram)
IndiGo Airlines (Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata)
Jet Airways (Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram)
Kingfisher Airlines (Agartala, Agatti, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Goa, Guwahati, Hubli, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Puttaparthi, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Tiruchirapalli, Varanasi)
Paramount Airways (Chennai, Hyderabad, Madurai, Vishakapatnam)
SpiceJet (Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad)

International

Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
Air India (Chicago-O'Hare, Dubai, Frankfurt)
Air Mauritius (Mauritius)(mid 2007)
British Airways (London-Heathrow)
Emirates (Dubai)
Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi from October)
Gulf Air (Bahrain, Muscat)
Indian Airlines (Bahrain, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Male, Muscat, Sharjah, Singapore)
Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur)
Nok Air (Bangkok)
Singapore Airlines (Singapore)
Srilankan Airlines (Colombo)
Thai Airways International (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi)