Next phase of airport expansion to begin in 2015

Civil works related to the next phase of the expansion, including the second runway and terminal, at Kempegowda International Airport is expected to commence in early 2015.

“We have started a competition to come up with a good design, which should be finalised by the end of this year,” said B. Bhaskar, Senior Director (Finance and Support Services), Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL). He estimated the cost of the expansion, expected to be completed by 2017, to be around Rs. 10,000 crore. The KIA handled 12.9 million (1.29 crore) passengers in 2013-2014. It is expected to handle 13.8 million passengers in the current financial year.

After T1 expansion was completed in December 2013, the handling capacity is 20 million passengers per annum. After the next phase of expansion is completed, the airport can handle 55 million passengers. Permission for the second runway is yet to come. The application is being assessed by a committee comprising officials of IAF, HAL and BIAL, Mr. Bhaskar said. The airport handles 1.2 lakh air traffic movements (ATM) annually against its capacity of 1.7 lakh ATMs. When both runways are operational, it will be able to handle 3.7 lakh ATMs, he added.

UDF hike in June?

The revised User Development Fee (UDF) for passengers departing from KIA is expected to be announced by the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) before the first week of June, Mr. Bhaskar said.

BIAL has proposed revision of UDF based on the 30 per cent hybrid till model, which considers all of aeronautical revenue and 30 per cent from non-aeronautical sources. It opposes the single till model that considers revenue from both aeronautical and non-aeronautical sources to calculate UDF.

“AERA has considered 30 per cent hybrid till model for Mumbai and Delhi airports. Why should there be any difference between the airports, especially since Bangalore’s was the first greenfield airport in the country,” he said on the proposal by AERA to have 40 per cent hybrid till model for Bangalore.

Currently, the UDF is Rs. 260 for departing domestic passengers and Rs. 1,070 for departing international passengers.