Bangalore International Airport
The Bangalore/Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) is finally commencing operations from 23 May 2008.
The switch to the new airport will take place at midnight on May 23. As per the statement from BIAL (BIA Limited) all flights landing and departing after midnight will operate from the new airport.
Update: BIA opened on May 24 (Saturday) and handled 341 flights on Day One
Also flights arriving before midnight (on May 22) can also choose to land on the new airport.
Air India’s flight from Bangalore to Singapore will supposedly be the first flight to take off from the new international airport in the city, when it becomes operational on May 23.
Even though I am not traveling out of Bangalore in the near time, I decided to checkout on the connectivity and the various transport options available to and from the new international airport.
Official Website
The BIA official web site does have a lot of information on the new airport. The site is indexed pretty well in Google and also has managed to get the Sitelinks.
http://www.bialairport.com
http://www.bengaluruairport.com
Contact Details
Bangalore International Airport Limited 118, Gayathri Lakefront Outer Ring Road Hebbal Bangalore - 560 024 Tel: +91 80 2354 0000 Fax: +91 80 2333 3400 Email: contact@bialairport.com
Flight Schedule Details
BIAL has also come up with a Flight Schedule List which is effective from 24 May 2008 to October 25 2008.
- Domestic Departure Details - Download here
- International Departure Details - Download here
Note that these schedule are subject to change and for more accurate information you should/could always call up 1800 425 4425
BIAL website also has added a new feature via which you can view the live flight arrival and departure information.
Transportation Facilities
Following is the list of current transport options available. You can either travel by bus, use the Airport Taxi Service or drive by yourselves.
Airport Shuttle Service
There are around 40 Volvo AC buses which will shuttle between the city and the airport. The following table has more information on the pick-up/drop-off points. The following areas are covered as of now
- Hebbal
- MCTC
- Jeevan Bhima Nagar
- HAL (Old Airport)
- JP Nagar 6th Phase
- Koramangala
- Kempegowda Bus Stand
- Whitefield(ITPL)
- Electronic City
Note: Once you know the route taken by these buses, you can catch the bus at any place on the route.
The following transport map seems to show 2 more locations not mentioned in the above table.
For more information on the areas covered, you can always call up these numbers.
BMTC Control Room: Telephone No: 22952522/22952422 BMTC, Kempegowda Bus Stand: Telephone No: 22952311/22952314 BMTC, Shivajinagar Bus Stand: Telephone No: 22952321/22952324
For those who are familiar with Bangalore, the following image might help in choosing the shortest road to the airport
Airport Taxi Service
Meru and Easy Cabs are the official taxi operators at the airport. The cars supposedly have a GPS and are also air conditioned. They are also are equipped with a credit card machine and at a charge of 15 INR/km this is definitely required 
You can also book these taxis over phone; the facility however is available only if you are going towards the airport.
Easy Cabs - 43434343 Meru Cabs - 44224422
Limo and Car Rental
You can also rent premium cars from Hertz or Akbar Travels. Apart from the regular chauffeured cars, passengers can also avail self-driven cars at the airport.
There will be three ranges of self drive cars- the compact category (Suzuki Swift), the intermediate range – (Ford Fiesta), the standard category- (Toyota corolla), Multi Utility Vehicles (Toyota Innova) and Sports Utility Vehicles (Ford Endeavour)
AirLift
AirLift is another car rental service which is currently charging 300 INR for a pickup/drop from any place in Bangalore. I checked on the official Website of Airlift and it looks like they are covering only south and east Bangalore as of now.
However at 300 INR, a drive in Toyota Innvoa with personal entertainment is a steal. I haven’t had the opportunity to use AirLift and hence can’t give a feedback on their service, if anyone has used Airlift, please feel free to give your feedback on the same.
If you intend to use Airlift, note that they are available at P-3 parking at BIA’s arriving terminal.
You can contact Airlift using the following details:
AIRLIFT #106, Sherwood Suites,17/2 Varthur Main Road, Marathahalli,Bangalore 560 037 Call : 97313 96331 Email : support@airliftonline.com
RedBus
RedBus, the online bus ticket booking service has introduced BMTC Bus booking for Bangalore International Airport.
You can book using RedBus irrespective of whether you are traveling to or from the International Airport.
RedBus allows you to book the Volvo buses on all the routes mentioned above and they even let you pick your seats.
(Note: The available seats have a checkbox which when checked appears in the “Chose Seats” text field)
Parking Facilities
The Airport’s car park can accommodate 2000 cars. The system used for the parking management is fully automated, efficient and transparent and is provided by SKIDATA™
Car parking fees have been priced at Rs.40/- for two hours and Rs.20/- for every additional hour in the general parking area. For overnight parking, Rs. 300 will be charged for the first 24 hours and Rs. 200 for every additional day.
BIA Photos
For up-to-date information, bookmark the official BIA Website !
Update - BIA has now come up with an Easy Guide which has lot of useful information.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
[...] The site should hopefully be online soon and till then, check my earlier post on BIA. [...]
Thank you for your detailed information on transportation to and from the new Bangalore International Airport, and especially for info on Airlift.
However, I find that any of the hyperlinks you provide for Airlift do not work. Moreover, i tried just http://www.airliftonline.com and it doesn’t come up with the site either. Any ideas why?
Hi Shobhan,
Glad that you found the post informative.
Regarding Airlift, I checked now and the site is opening with no issues. Probably the site was down for some time.
Also I have got bad feedback on Airlift, guess their service isnt upto the class.
Do have a backup plan if you are trying Airlift for the first time
And if you do use Airlift, please do come back here with your feedback.
I flew into BIAL late on 24/5, so still on Day 1. Its a decent enough airport. I’d never been to HAL airport so I have no idea of how it compares. Apart from a bit of a delay getting a gate to unload at, things worked ok. Left on 31/5 and again things went ok except for the repeated queuing which I’m sure could be streamlined.
Ian,
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience.
I haven’t seen the new airport, but going by the photos, it looks waaaay better than the HAL one.
I did read in your post regarding the queuing issue, its something that should get sorted out over the time
I have booked airlift using credit card on their website. I have selected 6/6/2008 as pickup date and flight time as 9:55am, but the confirmation email came as 6/8/2008 7:55pm, not sure why it happened that way. I have called their call center and have spoken with atleast 6-8 different persons and everytime they ask 10 different questions and say that i will get email within 5min and its been 2 days and i still havent received anyting. I am keeping my fingers crossed, hopefully by tomorrow morning, they will come to pick me up. Its pretty bad and unfriendly customer serivice, if you intend to cancel you get only 50%, so basically you are stuck.
Srikanth,
Yes I have heard a lot of bad about Airlift and it seems people haven’t got the cab on time.
So be prepared with a backup plan. The VOLVO service does seem to go empty towards airport, something which you should keep as a backup.
I’ve enjoyed reading all your link building posts.
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