BIAL inches towards normalcy

It appears that Mr. Brunner and members of his team have listened to the pleas of Bangalore.

They have been on-site, getting things fixed, apologising and comforting passengers, putting pressure on their ground handling agents, and other sub-concessionaires to get in to shape.

Ever so slowly things are falling in to place. Airlines are reporting smoother operations by and large. Today, there was a major IT systems glitch that forced everything to go to manual, from boarding pass to the actual boarding. But, from all reports, despite this one step backwards, two steps have been taken forward. There is light at the end of the tunnel that these initial teething problems will be resolved.

Thank you to all the workers at BIAL.

One issue that cannot be addressed by BIAL, is the tentativeness, of the AAI run, Air Traffic Control. Despite Bangalore being the third busiest airport in India, AAI has not deployed experienced controllers from the Tier 1 cities, but instead it has chosen to, from Tier 2, and smaller cities. These new controllers, till now, probably controlled less flights in a day, than they do at Bangalore, in an hour.

The ATC at HAL, had even suggested to AAI, that the new controllers spend time at the HAL ATC to become familiar with the traffic conditions and patterns at Bangalore, and build up their confidence. Call it ego, call it apathy, AAI chose not to.

Now all the passengers, airlines, BIAL are suffering due to this tentativeness. AAI should deploy at least 10 controllers from its top tier 1 ATC (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai) on a war footing at Bangalore, if the situation is to be salvaged.

A situation that is within BIAL's control, and I beg, to be addressed on priority, is the whole Cargo area. I have posted pictures in an earlier article, and its is shameful. Bangalore needs a fully functional airport, and I know BIAL can deliver; if only they put their mind to it.