Located 40 km away from the center of Bengaluru city, Bengaluru International Airport, has turned out to be one of the busiest airports in our country. The current airport was actually designed to replace the existing HAL airport, with much better connectivity and better infrastructure conditions for the passengers. The construction of the new proposed structure began during the year 2005 with much delays and the airport got finally inaugurated in May 2008 when an air plane landed at the airport from Mumbai around midnight. The first take off was recorded even the same night, some minutes later, when a flight to Singapore departed, officially declaring the airport open for public use. Moreover, the airport has also been awarded with the prestigious title of 'India's best airport' by a survey conducted by Skytrax.
It has become one of the most used airports in India, because as per the figures, about 9.3 million passengers were handled by the airport in 2009 alone, with an ATM(air traffic movement) of 280 per day. As far as the connectivity factor is concerned, 10 domestic airlines and 21 international airlines undertake the task of connecting the airport with 50 destinations across India as well as the world.
Covering around 4000 acres of land, the BIA has a floor area of 7.6 million sq feet, fully air conditioned, and spread over 4 floors of the structure, for an undisrupted service round the clock. Meeting all the regulations laid down by the Airports Authority of India(AAI), International Civil Aviation organization and International Air transport Association, the Bengaluru International Airport is equipped to accommodate around 3000 people during the peak hours, with roughly 27 flights in an hour. Moreover, during peak times, the airport is even designed to undertake 720 flights in just a single day
The airport has been a hub for Kingfisher airlines and the focus city for Jet, spice and GoAir. Domestic level lounges are provided by Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher, while the international level lounges, consisting of five star facilities are Oberoi lounge, Kingfisher lounge and The Leela lounge. Currently a rail route is also being proposed with a view of connecting the airport with the city metro train services. Moreover, due to all these facilities itself, many prestigious awards have been endowed to it.
