- IndiGo will be the most impacted airline with this decision
- T1 will become fully domestic from the same day
Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), Bengaluru will move all international flights to Terminal 2 starting September 01, 2023. The terminal, dubbed as the Garden terminal, was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in November 2022 and saw Star Air become the first airline to shift operations in January 2023. Subsequently, AirAsia India and Vistara have also moved to T2. Air India is likely to move to T2 leading up to the September move, making it a common terminal for the Tata group airlines. This was reported by Moneycontrol this afternoon.
What happens to Terminal 1?
Terminal 1 became operational in 2008 and was remarkably different from what it looks like today. Bengaluru airport opened the airport with an estimation of traffic which was achieved nearly immediately, thanks to the sudden spurt in traffic with the IT boom and Bengaluru making a mark as “Silicon capital of India”. I have often referred to the older terminal of Bengaluru as a glorified AC warehouse, for its structure but the airport has come a long long way since those days, having modified Terminal 1 to make it aesthetically better and expanded to have more gates, including the ability to handle more widebody aircraft.
Terminal 1 will undergo renovations in batches as per the Moneycontrol report. Currently T1 has an extendable international section which is used during peak hours at night for international and the same is used for domestic during the day time. All of this will merge to be one single terminal which will host IndiGo, Akasa Air, SpiceJet and Alliance Air. Go FIRST, if it returns to life, will also operate from T1.
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T2 – the garden terminal
T2, the new 255,661 square meter terminal is a dedication to the beautiful city of Bengaluru. The new terminal is located on the northeastern side of Terminal 1 and is designed by New York-based architectural firm SOM. The terminal has 90 counters with two-level domestic and international retail and lounge areas. The “L” shaped piers accommodate 19 code C boarding gates with the interiors clad in engineered bamboo.
Passengers navigate through 10,000+ sq mt of green walls, hanging gardens and outdoor gardens. The terminal has a razor sharp focus on sustainability with usage of 100% renewable energy and is recognised as the largest terminal in the world to be pre-certified with a Platinum LEED rating.
IndiGo – the impacted party?
Air India’s only international service currently from Bengaluru is to San Francisco, which is a non-daily operation. Vistara does not have international services from Bengaluru while Star Air and AirAsia India do not fly internationally.
IndiGo with its vast domestic network, where it serves more destinations from Bengaluru than it does from Mumbai, will be the most impacted with this change, since its international services will move to T2 while the domestic ones will remain at T1. IndiGo flies to Dubai, Doha, Male, Singapore, Bangkok, Colombo and sees a good number of connections via its domestic feed. Additionally, Virgin Atlantic (launching flights to Bengaluru next March), Air France and KLM, Qantas are codeshare partners of IndiGo and passengers connecting to and from these flights will have to take extra efforts to transit between T1 & T2 and vice versa.
Tail Note
Currently there are frequent buses between T1 and T2 and vice versa, however that still does not mean a seamless transfer. How the International to Domestic and vice versa experience changes will only be known in September.
During my visit to T2 in May, I found the terminal better in the check-in area but it needs to be seen how the security section is expanded and the subsequent bottleneck while passing through the retail section is handled.
The shift is expected on the intervening night of August 31 and September 01, 2023. I wonder if a mid-day shift should have been beneficial for international flights since there are quite a few flights which land around midnight and a change, no matter how well communicated, comes up with its own challenges – which are easier to handle in broad daylight than in the dead of the night.
Will these fragmented operations give Chennai or Hyderabad an edge since both these airports have integrated terminals? Chennai has more international traffic than Bengaluru but has challenges with infrastructure. Once settled will it pull more traffic from Bengaluru for easier connections?
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