Speaker Biograghy: Hari is responsible for the entire airport operations, engineering and maintenance and commercial functions at Bengaluru International Airport. Joining BIAL in September 2006 as the Head of Daily Operations, he moved on to become the Chief Operating Officer. As a member of the core team that successfully operationalised the airport project, he was instrumental in defining the operational concept of the airport and building up the team to ensure its readiness for functioning. Hari has a wealth of experience from over 20 years spent in service industries that include hospitality, airlines and airports across Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore.


Day 2 - 15 March
Session: Airport Design, Planning & Development - Middle East & Asia

14:00 - 14:30 - Challenges and opportunities in a high-growth airport
Synopsis: The last couple of years have seen tremendous growth in air traffic across India, on both the domestic and international side. Bangalore International Airport, the third-biggest airport in India and the gateway to South India, has contributed to this growth in a substantive manner. Passenger traffic has been growing by an average of 22% in the last couple of years, at almost three times the national GDP. This rate of growth has forced us to reprioritise and recalibrate our long-term airport masterplan, and has necessitated strategic and operational decisions to effectively tackle the capacity constraint now and in the near term. We are already in the midst of constructing the second runway and closing in soon on the Terminal 2 (T2) design. While the new infrastructure is still being developed, the present growth needs to be managed in a smart and efficient manner to achieve the twin objectives of customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. The presentation provides a view of some of the key challenges that the airport is faced with in this context, and how solutions are crafted to address and manage these challenges.

Audience will learn:

• Typical challenges that high-growth airports face
• How BIAL has solved these challenges with a few out-of-the-box ideas alongside conventional operational improvements
• Opportunities that have emerged along the way for the airport to consider