BIAL - what's working and What's NOT

Though I dont know the exact answer if the max pax of the terminal was inclusive of the 3 lounges or not.. if it is then its a joke - Mr Brunner must have got everything wrong - sorry Sir this is not a part of the airport that is accessed by all the passengers... there will be serious issues if this is true..

Airlines are cutting back on flights due to mounting losses, which might solve BIAL problems to a certain extent :)

http://specials.rediff.co...

http://ia.rediff.com/money/2008/jun/17roll.htm 

If the airlines are not developing and using the lounges, TAKE THE SPACE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!

In any case, the lounges are meant only for the Business/First Class and FFP status passengers. So it is not going to relieve much of the pressure.

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Regards

Devesh R. Agarwal

Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com

 

Just for the record, Train is probably better for the environment then a plane.

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The re-open HAL firestorm is threatening to spread through the forest as it were, altleast going by what is said in some of the public forums -- (not on Praja, this is too genteel for that sort of stuff). To continue with the forest metaphor, are we are missing the forest for the trees? Most of us are caught up with HAL as a commercial enterprise while ignoring the fact that there is whole ecosystem of HAL (aircraft manufacturing), DRDO (development of defence aircraft and other systems), the flight test center (not sure what this is part of) that are being supported out of the HAL airfield. DRDO alone has a dozen or so entities that operate in and around the HAL airfield. There is probably multiple billions of $ sunk into the defence infrastructure around HAL that most of us civilians do not get to see. There was a nice article in the Times of India several weeks ago by retired Air Marshal Malcolm Wollen (former Chairman of HAL, a genuine IAF war hero and I believe a test pilot himself) where he argued that flight testing and commercial flying out of HAL cannot and should not go togther. The fact that we did have commecial operations out of a facility meant for defence R&D and flight testing was an artifact of a dysfunctional system of governance and bureaucracy. A separate commercial airfield like we finally have now has been overdue in Bangalore for 30-40 years. The fact that HAL serves a critical national defence need has not entered into the discourse and that is troubling. Niagaras of hot air have been generated over this issue, doomsday scenarios have been conjured up (what if BIAL does not invest another paisa on the project, what if the common man is forced to take a shower before boarding an airplane etc. etc.), Tughlaqian ideas have been floated (move all of the defence-related infrastructure to Yelahanka and leave HAL free and clear for commercial business -- clearly a case of tail wagging the dog!). The fact is we have a half-decent facility in BIAL by all accounts (I personally have received a dozen very favorable reports from friends who are all international frequent fliers of a minimum gold level) and it can be improved over the years (I remember what a disaster the $3.5 Billion Denver International Airport was at its inception and there have been other monumental disasters in the recent years).

Hi Everybody

Got a picture of Kingfisher's brand new first Airbus A330 which landed just a few minutes earlier. http://aviation.deveshaga...

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Regards

Devesh R. Agarwal

Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com

 

It's just the rubber burning off due to the friction during a sudden increase in speed from 0!! In larger aircraft it is more pronounced due to the higher speeds & bigger tires (which translates to more surface area touching the runway).  

Thanks. This was interesting site.

This site have interesting results on google search (http://www.flightstats.com/go/Syndication/widgets.do#googleSearch) :

Airline-code Flight-number when typed in google search gives first result to the flight status

Airport-code arrivals (or departures) in google search gives arrival (or departure) status information for all flights.

Sanjay

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devesh, if you need help posting your experience, please let me know. if you need to post an article along with pictures, please mail it it to me. my gmail id is tarlesubba. i will post them in your name. thanks.

This comment has been moved here.

Plane truth: Trains fare better
By Nandini Chandrashekar, DH News Service, Bangalore:

Frequent short haul air travellers from Bangalore seem to be preferring the train, discouraged by the distance and time taken to travel to the new Bengaluru International Airport (BIA).

South-Western Railway officials here have noticed a great increase in passengers notably on the Shatabdi trains running between Chennai and Bangalore. Booking on these trains have been steady at 100 per cent beginning from the month of May.

Five trains ply daily between Bangalore and Chennai at present, excluding a weekend train. While most of these trains do experience heavy traffic, the Shatabdi has been facing unprecedented rush for the past two months and the trend appears set to continue.

Bangalore Divisional Railway Manager Akhil Agarwal told Deccan Herald that booking had increased significantly on Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi-Trivandrum routes.

“We are going to observe this for a couple of more months and if the trend continues, then we will either add coaches to the existing trains or add a new train on the route.”

Shatabdi trains at present are running with seven coaches and these are likely to be augmented to 10 coaches.
Officials are still keenly watching the other sectors like Hyderabad and Kochi. There has been a definite increase in bookings on the Hyderabad route as well, but a senior railway official pointed out that it could also be due to the introduction of the Garib Rath train in the month of February.

The route towards Kochi and Trivandrum is a busy sector any time of the year and it has been difficult to establish the reason.

Travel agents have no doubts whatsoever, about the decline and the reasons for it. Rakesh P of Jagadish Air Travels admitted that they had a staggering 65-70 per cent drop in air ticket bookings to Chennai after the opening of the new airport. His clients clearly expressed their unwillingness to travel the long distance to the airport for a 30-minute flight.

He also said a considerable number of his clients who flew to Chennai to visit the consulates now prefers Shatabdi or a bus. In fact, so popular has been the demand for buses, that the agency started bus bookings as well to keep in tune with the customer requirements.

Another travels, Classic Air Travels, has also experienced a 50 per cent drop in their bookings to Chennai.
Interestingly enough, the passenger traffic to Hubli and Mangalore has fluctuated slightly, but nothing to indicate decreased air travel.

The reason, says Rakesh, could be because the number of travellers on this route have always been less, due to high costs and the ones that did travel could well afford it and would continue doing so.

Buses to Chennai seem to be faring pretty well considering that this is considered to be a slump season.
Phanindra Sama, CEO  of redbus.in, the online portal offering reservations for 300 bus companies, said that sale of tickets to Chennai had jumped by about 35 per cent.

The increase was across all kinds of buses as the travel time is only five hours.

This time advantage seems to have encouraged software companies, who send their employees to obtain visas, to take the bus.

“There is a definite cost and time advantage to taking the bus to Chennai these days,” he added.

Source : The Deccan Herald
http://www.deccanherald.c...

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Regards

Devesh R. Agarwal

Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com

 

of course this comment is in my humble opinion!

I am personally happy to see short haul flights being cut down. Instead of looking at this from a "zoomed in" perspective if we step back and look at the entire country's transport system. I belive Rail is a more effective, practical, cheaper and greener method to travel short distances.

IMO Indian railways has been very slow in moving forward with better service, They are just eating out of Avaition's loss. If they acted smart enough this crowd that is now migrating to train would have migrated earlier irrespective of the airport/ATF.

The following statistics are for the Eurostar Route (London - Edinburgh) which is relatively close to the Bangalore - Chennai Route.   It shows the CO2 consumption per passenger.

Journey	Out & back by Plane	Out and Back by Train
London to Edinburgh	3.5 hours, 193 Kg/CO2	4.5 hours, 24 Kg/CO2

(Source here )

Fuel is a finite resource, we have a way of consuming less why not encourage it? Why not work on making Train journeys to Chennai even faster and more frequent? Why not start creating Train + Rail journeys?

All across India if we can do away with short haul flights and improve our rail network it would work wonders! Instead of choosing only 1 mode of travel, lets try and see which mode is most pratical and relevant to a specific journey.

Lastly, i would reccomend that IR tie up with the airlines/airports and work together instead of competing. Maybe BIAL can be a station (broad guage) that trains from mysore & chennai pass through?

Garib Raths and Jan Shatabdis with all types of classes in it with the speed of Shatabdis is needed to connect major cities instead of the expensive Shatabdis. These Shatabdis are expensive and cater only one cadre of people. Executive class people can take the executive class coaches in Jan Shatabdis and a common man a normal non a/c sitting.

Trains are even cheaper than buses, for example Mysore-Bangalore normal bus is 74 rupees and train is 45 rupees. Volvo is 200 rupees and a non-stop train which covers the distance in same time as volvo is 55 rupees.

Great idea Narayan. May be the Mysore - Bangalore - Chennai Shatabdi can make a stop at BIAL. There is a railway station right near the trumpet (on the Chikkaballapur line).

London to Ediburgh is actually 550km if I remember correctly. The route via Glasgow is 720km. So it is more like Bangalore-Hyderabad.

The plane journey is 1:15 and train is 4:30 to 5:30 depending whether on the East Coast line or Glasgow line.

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Regards

Devesh R. Agarwal

Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com

 

I was fortunate to take off from the brand new Terminal 5 in London and land in the brand new Bengaluru International Airport recently.

Terminal 5 (new home of BA), after it's teething troubles has started operations to New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Cairo, and another 7-8 cities including Bengaluru. Now, our Bengaluru was rubbing shoulders with some heavy weight cities of this planet.., and why not.., it is afterall the IT outsourcing capital of the world!

I was looking forward to landing in Bengaluru ever since Photoyogi first broke the news to the world on the 23rd of May:-). Photoyogi, I still think you were the first to break this news, much before ToI, Rediff, DH or any other TV news channel!

The lights were twinkling in and around probably what was Devanahalli just before the wee hours of the morning. And then there it was - the bright and sparkling lights showcasing the airport in full splendour. The airport definetly looked "international" as the flight landed. I remember Mr. Brunner saying this is just 30% of the airport yet. Hmm.., this is good and it will get better..?!

But wait, and then, the PTB came into full view. Hmm.., this looks kind of smaller than what I thought it would be  - was the first thought that came to my mind. No wonder Devesh and many others have been complaining it is small.., with the honourable minister Mr. Patel also now joining the chorus. But, all the glass and steel made it gleam and shine and look smart.

I was out of the flight and other formalities including baggage claim was done in 25 minutes flat. That was quick, I thought. But, now my little one needed a nappy change and lo behold in the Baby Center, there was, but one chair to complete the chore. My wife and I scratched our heads.., but with some deft handling of the little one, the nappies and the chair, we got the job done. BIAL needs to fix this. Now, that made me wonder why should I not check out the rest room for the adults..? Good news.., it was clean as a whistle and I breathed a sigh of relief.

As we stepped out, the day had broken out and I could see some folks waiting to receive their near and dear ones and also the mandatory placards as in any other airport in the world. Not too many here. Must be the time and the distance from the city I thought. The fresh air was very much Bengaluru and made me smile.

We had made up our minds to use the BMTC Vajra Vayu and had forbidden any family members from coming so early in the morning. I looked around and there they were, looking welcoming. As we started in that direction, we were accosted by some City taxi folks. Now, weren't you all excluded from working out off the new airport, I asked one of them. No way, we cannot go into the inner lanes meant for the Meru taxis, but we can operate from a little further off, he informed. One of them tried to sell us the proposition that since there were 4 of us and going by the Vajra Vaayu would cost us Rs.600 to Jayanagar 4th block, he can take us to our doorstep for just the same amount. Hmm, no way, I thought. I must use the BMTC services and do my bit for the environment. As we moved towards the bus, the little one started bawling and the conductor said the bus will start in 15 minutes. We hastily summoned the City taxi and got home in 50 minutes. That was real good, even at 7:35 AM on a sunday morning. The magic boxes have done something after all. The six lane golf course road was cool. All the cut trees on this road have now been planted at UAS, the driver offered. I am not sure if that was really the case. But, I do hope he is telling the truth.

Return journey: There were signs at the Jayanagar bus stand to indicate buses at I think 15 minutes intervals and the bus arrived just about 2 minutes late. The trip on the BMTC bus to the airport at 3 AM in the morning was done in 60 minutes. The lights on the road until Yelhanka were bright.., but after some time there was only darkness. BBMP needs to fix this soon as this stretch I believe is seeing many accidents. The trumpet flyover looked brillant and the rest of the road until the airport was well lit and looked the part of a International airport.

The check in was completed in 10 mins and I was near the departure gates in 15 minutes. The retail areas looked their part too. The restrooms were again clean as a whistle. This is good. But wait, the waiting area was already looking full.  Yes, I think the PTB is way too small for a airport of the capital of gloabl IT outsourcing. Mr. Brunner, I think Mr.Patel is right. The capacity has to be doubled at the earliest. In fact, it should be able to cater to atleast 15 to 20 million passengers / year. This capacity should make use of the existing runway completely. Also, can we have the next PTB looking very contemporary please..? The present one does look a little like a warehouse from the outside. And please, let us have the arrivals and departures at different levels. It is more fashionable and I dare say more optimal in terms of space usage.

All in all a good airport experience. No delays, quite a clean and sparkling airport.., but the PTB is a little too small and yes, if the new PTB does not have the "wow" factor, Mr.Mallya may make some other airport the hub for KF. 

I wanted to call you, SB. But, there were just too many things to attend to. Apologies. But, I will touch base with you soon about SWR.