Slated for a May 11 opening of its first phase, Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) will be the area’s newest transportation hub, and its opening promises to up the ante with a landmark facility that sports the latest high-tech amenities.
The first phase will see a spiffy terminal for domestic and international flights, a runway long enough to handle super jumbo jets, and spots for up to 48 planes to load and unload passengers.
Rather than trying to keep the airport as disconnected from the city as possible, planners have said they hope to turn the new airport area into a small city of its own with much more than the usual airport hotels and huge fields of parking lots.
Airport City, the city within a city at BIAL, is still in the development phase. But when it’s completed, it will be full-fledged metropolis—or "aerotropolis," as planners put it. The development will feature a business district with meeting space and all the amenities a road warrior could want, a hotel district and a 90-acre technology zone ideal for research centers.
In its first year of operation, BIAL will have the capacity to handle 11 million passengers annually. Eventually, the airport will be able to host 50 million fliers per year. Local officials know that the airport will give the first and last impression of Bangalore—details are scarce at the moment, but they promise that on May 11 travelers will be duly impressed.
