India’s Kempegowda International Airport Taking Over Japan’s Proud No. 1 On-Time Departure Rate from Haneda

Interview with Airport CEO: “We have created an airport that can be found nowhere else in the world”

In conjunction with our coverage of the airport, we interviewed Hari Marar, CEO of the airport, who has been working at Bengaluru International Airport since 2006

Mr.Marar is proud to say, “We have created a unique terminal at the airport that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.” In particular, business use has recently returned, and travelers are increasing, especially on domestic flights, with Lufthansa’s Frankfurt and Munich routes, Qantas’ Sydney route, and Virgin Atlantic’s London Heathrow route scheduled to begin service in the near future. A convention center will be established near the airport, and the company expressed its desire to actively attract international conferences and other events to Bengaluru in the future.

 

Anticipating that India will continue to develop and that the number of airport users will continue to increase, Mr. Marar said, “The airport will continue to evolve for many years to come,” including the completion of a second runway, the construction of a bus gate terminal, and the extension of the subway to the center of Bengaluru. Even as Terminal 2 is finally beginning full-scale operations, he said, they are even looking at a third terminal.

In the meantime, I asked Marar if there were any airports that he used as references,

“Singapore’s Changi Airport for customer service, Switzerland’s Zurich Airport for cleanliness, and the Netherlands’ Schiphol Airport for IT,” he replied.

When asked why the airport’s “on-time departure rate” has surpassed that of Haneda to take the top spot.

“There is one more thing worth mentioning about this airport. According to Cirium, a British data analysis company, the airport ranked second (84.08%) behind Haneda Airport (90.33%) in the “global” category of on-time departure rates by airport in 2022. Moreover, it was No. 1 in June, July, and August of 2023, the most recent months. Haneda Airport, on the other hand, was out of the top 21 in August. The drop in the rankings of Haneda Airport and other Japanese airports is due in large part to the frequent delays caused by recent weather conditions.”

Even so, the high on-time departure rate at Bengaluru International Airport is something to be proud of. In addition to the terminal, the airport has invested a huge amount of money and installed South India’s only “CAT III” (*) on the runway. According to Mr. Marar, “The cooperation between the airport, airlines, and all other staff involved in flight operations has contributed greatly to our top on-time departure rate.”

 

CAT III: A category of precision approach and landing with a minimum height of resolution and runway visual range (RVR) for each category.