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  • Posted: Mon, Jul 7 2008. 7:46 PM IST

Bial will break even in 5 years if allowed to charge user fee

There is nothing called annual capacity. Peak-hour capacity (is what matters).

Venkatesha Babu

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Bangalore: Seventeen years after it was conceived, the Bengaluru International Airport became operational on the night of 24-25 May after several delays. From the day of its launch, the airport has been in the news mainly for the wrong reasons, from complaints over poor connectivity to inadequate toilet facilities. This, however, doesn’t seem to faze Albert Brunner, the soft-spoken chief executive officer of airport operator Bangalore International Airport Ltd (Bial), who has been leading the project since 2002. In an interview with Mint, Brunner responds to the criticism and controversy surrounding Bial. Edited excerpts:

Can you give us an overview of where things stand today?

Expansion plan: Bial CEO Albert Brunner says the airport would need a second terminal by 2012-13. (Photo: Hemant Mishra / Mint)

Expansion plan: Bial CEO Albert Brunner says the airport would need a second terminal by 2012-13. (Photo: Hemant Mishra / Mint)

We opened on the 24th of May. Whereas the first flight was perfectly fine, the first day was a disaster. We had teething problems in two areas, operation-related and infrastructure-related.

People waited for 20 minutes for the staircase to attach to the aircraft. I would be fuming if it had happened to me. They had to wait for 40 minutes for baggage, another reason to get angry. Then you had to wait for one hour to get a taxi. The reason (was that) the service provider did not get the licence for taxis. When we opened we had 89 taxis, now we have 800 taxis.

You see, the cumulation of all these things gave us a bad name. I do not want to look for excuses, we have to solve it, but most of it was not under our control. Still, we were the one to take responsibility. Infrastructure-wise, we don’t have enough toilets, we had underestimated—the layouts were bad. We have now increased the number of toilets, added area wise 45%.

When people had to get out, we needed staircases and bridge or bags to be brought out, it was the responsiblity of the ground handler who is the service provider. Unfortunately, many of the airlines wanted to do the ground handling themselves. And for a long period, they had not signed the contract with the ground handlers. At a very late stage, they said to the ground handlers: “you do it”. But neither they had trained personnel nor equipment.

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Vikram Said:


Mr. Brunner, I think is being foolish, when he says and I quote "The city will lose out having a strong airport and an opportunity to attract lot of international airlines and make it stronger. Airlines are already losing money." Hasn't he ever been to London where they have two airports operating - Heathrow & Gatwick - Is that a loss to London??? No - instead I think it's brilliant a concept and India should also have two airports in the high traffic volume cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, etc.

Posted On 7/8/2008 9:25:33 AM
Veeresh Said:


Albert Brummer must be indeed a very happy man - the interview carried in your newspaper on the 8th of July'08 let him off the hook on all the really contentious issues that any regular user of the new airport in Bengaluru will point out. To start with, the air-cargo terminal is far from ready - as a result, all landside activity is still carried out at the old HAL Airport. Customs seem to be absent at BIAL cargo. In other words, documents flow up and down from BIAL to HAL, which increase the demurrage charges at BIAL, which works fine for BIAL I guess. That's a major component of any revenue at any airport in the world - passengers are not as profitable, simply put. Next, for the bulk of the passengers travelling to and from BIAL by BMTC buses, crossing other road traffic at least twice is an invitation to disaster. A very simple change in the flow would enable bus passengers to embark and disembark right on the main landing area, but no, that would make things very simple and impact parking as well as taxi franchisee revenues. So, bus passengers are pushed away into a distance, and then they need to scurry through other road traffic. This does not happen in any other world airport, not even in Zurich, so Brummer would know. Please also take a look at the width of the staircases provided to take passengers from the check-in area to the security area upstairs. There are international standards on how wide these stair-cases should be, in case they are needed to be used for emergency evacuations, and these do not confirm. We also do not see so much fire-fighting and life-saving equipment as we see at airports worldwide - and if it is there, then maybe some signage might help. The area around BIAL used to be fertile and green, and has now been reduced to a dust-bowl, so much so that 10-15 minutes outside and you will need a shower. Provision for which, even if payment is made, is not available. Provincial Airport, BIAL, actually.

Posted On 7/10/2008 10:49:01 AM
Raghu Said:


Why on earth should a huge infrastructure project like an airport, be designed in such a way tht it "breaks even" in 5 years ? They shd target a break even in 20-30 years and thats the way all infrastructure projects operate all over the world. Here, the idea is tht they have to be a "monopoly" and that they must be able to do everything on their own terms. Good to see tht Mr. Brunner is not even making an iota of effort to hide the fact tht this is a real-estate money making enterprise. I wud propose tht the govt: treat BIAL not as a public service utility but as a profit making enterprise and hence, revoke all the orders waivering stamp duty, tax, levy etc and must not give it the status of an SEZ. They shd also open HAL airport immediately and all low cost airlines must be operating out of HAL. Theres no other way to protect public interest.

Posted On 7/10/2008 3:09:02 PM
Vishvas Said:


Mr. Brunner's argument look more like ones for the sake of doing so. There does not appear to be any logic in what he says. I dont think one would like to pay a UDF for the horrible, sub-standard facilities at BIAL. This airport is nothing better than the HAL airport. I boarded an International Flight out of BIAL and there was only one flight at the time I boarded. The security hold area looked too full and claustrophobic. The domestic area is no better. Early in the mornings, there would be queues for the toilets! What planning is this!!!! This is just a transfer of monopoly from AAI to BIAL. Given so much of resources, there is little doubt in my mind that AAI would have done more or less the same job.

Posted On 7/21/2008 4:06:02 PM
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