May 31, 2008 03:51 PM
4235 Views
I have taken two journeys out of BIA already. One departure and one arrival. I
feel the airport is ill prepared to handle the kind of air traffic that
Bangalore witnesses. The Checkin areas is small(53 Check-in counters, but then
Hyderabad's new airport has almost 80, with half the traffic). Somehow the place
feels cramped. Security check Xray machines too aren't much more than the old
HAL airport, I feel it'll soon get crowded. Worst part is the Security Hold area
and the gates. They feel cramped due to bad design.
The chairs are put in such a
way that there isn't enough walking space, and the number of chairs per gate is
inadequate. The flight information display is just one after security check/hold
area and on that day it wasn't working! They need multiple of them. While
arrival(by an ATR) I had another bad experience. It is close to 5 days now,
since the Airport is functioning, but after landing there was a 15 minute wait
for a'parking bay'! If the ATC knows an aircraft is coming in won't they have
a parking bay ready? This was amazingly shoddy work.
Once out of aircraft, the
bus ride to terminal was tedious too. It has to go all the way to the other end
(close to a boundary wall), and then take a turn. But they haven't provided
space to do an U turn, so it has to go forward-reverse a few times to turn
around and come back to terminal. Again - shoddy. The best part of the airport
isn't airport at all. The BMTC Vayu Vajra bus I took for my ride back to city
was simply Amazing. It took me an hour to reach my home in Outer Ring road
(Banaswadi), but then that isn't BMTC's mistake.
Overall: I believe BIA isn't
ready. The airport feels not completely done, with cheap finish in the
aero-bridge etc. If you have seen airports around the world(And even new
Hyderabad Airport), BIA is a huge disappointment
