What, according to you, have been the notable achievements in the last five years of operations?
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| Sanjay Reddy |
At Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), the focus has been to establish this airport as India’s leading airport in terms of quality and efficiency and set a benchmark for the future commercial development of Indian airports. Our prime focus has always been to enhance passenger experience at the airport in every possible way. We as an airport have been constantly innovating and upgrading our services and processes.
Departure punctuality touches 85 per cent through most months, within 15 minutes of scheduled time. Baggage delivery remains constant with the first baggage being dropped on the belt within seven minutes of the flight touching down. By international standards, this is a good record.
One IT concept in particular, the common-use model, implemented by BIAL is highly cost effective for both airlines and concessionaires as it saves them the effort of managing the underlying infrastructure. Additionally, our streamlined processes ensure faster turnaround making the operations as well as travel through the Bengaluru International Airport more efficient and economical for passengers. As a result of this, the airport has received many accolades. The most recent ones being ‘Best Airport, India’ award by SKYTRAX and ‘Best Emerging Airport – Indian Sub-continent’ at the Emerging Markets Airports Awards (EMAA). Other milestones include, creating a differentiating edge through its unique initiatives to promote tourism and showcase the region, successfully working towards expansion of infrastructure to ensure adequate capacity and working towards a green canvas that extends to both the business as well as beautiful airport landscapes.
What are the key features of terminal 1 expansion?
Designed to enhance operational performance and cater to the increase in passenger traffic anticipated by 2015, the construction of the expanded terminal is in full swing. The enhanced T1 will be spread over an area of approximately 150,500 square meters. As part of the expansion plan, the terminal building design takes into account existing core strengths i.e. short walkways, ease and convenience of usage, linear flow and flexible design. The terminal when expanded, will more than double the current floor space. With the expansion of the existing terminal, Bengaluru International Airport is now revamping its commercial blueprint to encourage every traveller to take back a memory or memento of South India, where it is strategically located. Bengaluru International Airport is in an enviable position to enrich their airport experience with the culture and ethos of the four southern states. Complementing this approach, the southern flavour will prevail across retail and F&B concepts, including a variety of unique cultural artifacts such as silk products, handicrafts, Ayurveda, coffee and spices, sandalwood, and cuisine from the four states. Travellers can look forward to enjoying the enhanced T1 in stages from the fourth quarter of 2013.
How will the new additions enhance customer experience?
As an airport, Bengaluru International Airport is focused on customer experience – of both the airline as well as the passengers through a range of business excellence programmes. The expanded terminal is aimed at significantly improving the passenger experience. It will have more check-in counters, seating areas, a large security hold area and more aerobridges. It will make access to seating, amenities and commercial facilities easier and better. Additionally, it will help airlines improve their operational performance. The interiors and exteriors are being designed to mirror the rich culture of Karnataka and the vibrant colours of the Garden City.
Which have been your most innovative technology implementations – both backend and customer serving?
We have leveraged the use of technology to optimise our operation and provide world-class service to our passengers. Being a greenfield airport we leveraged the opportunity to deploy state-of-the art industry leading solution skipping the legacy route. The airport is constantly upgrading, always meeting and often exceeding world standards. As ICT (information, communication and technology) are critical for the operational management of airlines, we have implemented various solutions to measure and provide valuable insights into the key airport performance indicators, efficiency of airport processes and services and take informed decisions. Additionally, BIAL has been the first airport to embrace TETRA standards for Private Mobile Radio Networks for captive use of all stakeholders for safe and effective airport operations and also an effective tool for emergencies. BIAL recently collaborated with IBM to create a SMART IT framework to enhance passenger experiences like mobile check-in and self-boarding, self-bag drop to address change life style and expectations of today’s traveler leveraging today’s technology.
What have been the notable impact of your environmental initiatives?
BIAL has transitioned to an ecologically sustainable airport through its continuous efforts. As part of our green initiatives and policy we have identified some key areas that we would like to focus on. Our aim is to reduce water consumption per passenger by 2 per cent per year from the current level and reduce power consumption pertaining to all utility equipment operation by 2 per cent per passenger per annum from the current level. As part of the on-going green initiatives the ground operations were converted to biofuel earlier this year. BIAL has set its objectives in various areas to reduce carbon emission. This airport has also been certified with a Level 2 carbon accreditation – the first for any airport in Asia-Pacific.
The airport is now a plastic-free zone, by switching to eco-friendly bags made of cloth and papers at all its retail and F&B outlets. BIAL’s green canvas in the future includes integration of sustainable practices across business verticals and includes infrastructure, terminal operations, information technology, corporate functions and project management.
