Bangalore International Airport | BIAL

After Bangalore witnessed an IT boom air travel increased a lot to and from Bangalore. The old Airport near HAL wasn’t able to handle the traffic as it was the same airport for domestic and international flights. It was time for Bangalore to get a new international airport.me

Start Date: July 2, 2005
End Date: Jan 2, 2008 [27 months]

Trial Run: Jan 15, 2008 [to be held in 3 stages: Basic, Advanced and Integrated]

First Commercial Flight: May 24, 2008

Change of Name: Kempe Gowda International Airport

Airport Features	What Will Be Where
Area: 4500-acre plot in Devanahalli, 30 km Bangalore Project cost: Rs 2,478 crore State share: Rs 350 crore Exemptions: No sales tax Exemption Passenger Capacity: 12 million per year Additional Jobs Created: 1,000 jobs per million passengers Cargo capacity: 100,000 tonnes per year First phase by: June 20071st Aadhar enabled airport by 2018	Domestic arrival : Ground floor International arrival : Swing gate walk on second floor Domestic and International departure : First floor Baggage handling and claim : Ground floor

We have been waiting forever for an international airport and looks like by 2006 we will have one. The project got delayed several times, obviously, due to political problems.

The airport is expected to generate 2,5000 skilled and semi-skilled jobs.

In December the airport was renamed after the founding father of Bangalore – “Nadarprabhu Kempegowda International Airport (NKIA)”. The new terminal T1A which was inaugurated in December 2013 spans over 150,500 sq meters. The new terminal can accommodate an Airbus A380 aircraft.

Check-in Counters	Self Check-in Counters	Emigration Counters (In & Out Bound each)	International Security Pedestals	Domestic Security Pedestals	Baggage Reclaim Belts (Domestic / International)
86	30	24	16	32	7 / 6

First Test Flight at Bangalore Airport

On March 7, 2008 the first test flight took off from Bangalore HAL airport to BIAL. The flight was commanded by Deccan Captain Pratap Deshpande and First Office Ms. Hetal S. The Deccan flight was a brand new Airbus A320, which carried media persons and senior airline executives had 173 people on board and travelled 15 nautical miles and cruised at a low altitude all through. The test flight was delayed by one and a half hours!

Onboard, flight safety demonstrations were done by flight attendant Priyanka and passengers were assisted by the cabin crew of Gurpreet, Neha and Hina. On arrival, the media were addressed by Albert Brunner.

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