The operations at Bengaluru Kempegowda International Airport's Terminal 2 began on Sunday, January 15, with the maiden flight, operated by Star Air, taking off to Karnataka's Kalaburagi.
This comes nearly two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the terminal, which would see at least one airline operationally ready every 15 to 30 days over the period of the next few months.
Expansion plans
"By the end of March this year, we aim to operationalise all the domestic airlines that have moved to T2. During this phase we also aim to achieve operational stability because T2 is a large and complex infrastructure with many interconnected and moving parts," Hari Marar, the MD and CEO of Bangalore International Airport Ltd, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
He also informed that international operations from the terminal are expected to commence in April.
"By the early part of next financial year, we aim to move all the international airlines as well to T2 and by the middle of this year, the new terminal will be fully operational and running," stated Marar.
The expansion plan also includes the construction of a five-lane way for smoother pick-up and drop of passengers accessing this terminal. The first phase of it is equipped to handle 25 million passengers a year. Once the second phase is constructed, the terminal will be able to handle 20 million more flyers.
Terminals 1 and 2 combined, the Bengaluru airport will have the capacity to handle at least 65 million flyers annually, officials were quoted as saying.
So, how was the experience of the first passenger at T2?
The first person to access the terminal and also board Star Air's Embraer-145 was aviation enthusiast Gautam Musinipalli, according to The New Indian Express. He also landed back in Bengaluru in the return leg of the same flight.
"I reached the entrance of Terminal One. As of now I think no taxi driver is familiar about to reach the new terminal. A free shuttle service was waiting there to ferry passengers to T2. I was literally the first to get on board the bus too! Even the driver of this bus got confused with the road to take to reach the new terminal and apologized for the mistake," Musinipalli was quoted as saying.
He further went on to explain how impressed he was with the airport and compared it to the Osaka and New York airports. "My entry was smooth using my retina (face recognition technology) and the checks were very quick," he stated, adding that the process of getting the boarding pass was also very quick due to there being very less people.
"We were given complimentary breakfast, a lovely silk shawl by the airport authorities and sweets by Hotel Taj, all of which made us feel really special. As I was the first passenger, I was allowed to light the lamp with others," he said.
