Our prime focus has always been to enhance passenger experience in every possible way

After a stint of little over a year as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL), Marcel Hungerbuehler has assumed charge as its President. Marcel, in candid conversation with Vasuki Prasad (SP’s AirBuz), spoke about his overall responsibility in not only managing operations in BIAL but also the commercial and engineering aspects.

SP’s AirBuz (SP’s): What has been your experience as the Chief Executive Officer of BIAL? How does your role as a former Senior Vice President of Swissport Zurich influence your decisions at BIAL?

Marcel Hungerbuehler (Hungerbuehler): It has been twoand-a-half years since Bengaluru International Airport commenced operations on May 24, 2008. Achieving the dream of giving the city a world class airport, which has proved its operational efficiency, has not been an easy one. The airport constantly upgrades itself, and I am happy with the operational performance which is carefully monitored and enhanced. This is made possible through the relentless commitment and enthusiasm of thousands of people involved in making this project successful. The working of an airport is a highly complex function and takes years of understanding and hands-on experience. Being a part of the management at Swissport and Swissair in various capacities of operations, sales and marketing has given me a lot of insight and expertise in the field of airport management, especially operations. It has enabled me to bring into the running of the Bengaluru International Airport the systems, processes and efficiency with which the Zurich airport is run, an attribute that we have been most applauded for, from the early months of operations here.

Despite being in its nascent stage, the airport has already received many accolades and has been the proud recipient of many awards and certifications. In January 2010, the Bengaluru International Airport received a platinum certification from IATA for becoming the first airport in India to be 100 per cent bar coded boarding passes (BCBP) compliant. This is a testimony of BIAL’s continued support to the best practices in the industry. In early 2010, BIAL also received the ISO 14001:2004 certification, an official recognition of the airport management’s constant efforts towards a greener airport and city. In May 2010, BIAL received ISO 27001 certification for information security management system standards. Additionally, very recently BIAL was acknowledged with the prestigious CNBC AWAAZ Travel Awards 2010 under the category of ‘Best Managed Airport’ in the country. In October, the airport brought home yet another award by achieving distinguished honours for excellence in IT adoption in the travel and logistics category by India’s most prestigious awards for IT deployment, the NASSCOM and CNBC-TV18 IT User Awards 2010. In a short time span, the Bengaluru International Airport has already become the pride and identity of Bengaluru. It has overcome many challenges, earned numerous accolades and has remained focused on its objectives. As a team, we have adhered to our goal of providing high service standards and are pleased that recent passenger opinion of our performance and service is very positive.

SP’s: What is your vision for BIAL? How do you plan to make BIAL the “Gateway to South India”? Do you visualise Bengaluru becoming a transit hub like Singapore’s Changi and KL International Airport?

Hungerbuehler: The vision of the Bengaluru International Airport—to become the gateway to South India, is clear. We believe that BIAL will enable the economic prosperity of this region by facilitating the region’s connectivity to the world. While we have been working towards this goal since the beginning, the focus of the airport has constantly been on operational excellence. Apart from the trunk routes connecting the metro cities, there is tremendous scope for growth with respect to regional connectivity. Bengaluru has the best network, connecting airports in South India and this only keeps growing with the addition of new regional airports by the domestic airlines. Connectivity to Central and Northeast India is certainly an area which has potential for growth. Also, with domestic airlines getting permissions to fly internationally, SAARC countries are prospective regions for growth.

SP’s: What is the response of the BIAL fire crew to emergencies? Is there any data based on trial runs which supports the quick response of the fire team in case of aircraft accidents, both inside and outside the perimeter? Are there sufficient crash gates to cater to accidents of aircraft on approach, outside the perimeter?

Hungerbuehler: The Bengaluru International Airport is equipped with CAT-9 level of fire protection as per International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards. The airport rescue and fire fighting (ARFF) setup at the airport has been designed in such a way so as to meet the operational objectives of the rescue and fire fighting (RFF) services to achieve the response time of two minutes to each end of the runway and not exceeding three minutes to any other location of the movement area in optimum visibility. The ARFF building and facilities have been designed to meet the requirements of international standards. The airport has four state-of-the-art airfield firefighting vehicles. These crash fire vehicles termed as ‘Panthers’ have been imported from Austria and are most technologically advanced in its class. They have special off-road capabilities and can attain speed of up to 80 kmph in less than 30 seconds. The ARFF team is dedicated and highly trained to maintain very high standards of professionalism and efficiency in its mission of service to human life. BIAL firefighters have been trained in ICAO-approved training centres. Additionally, BIAL conducts mock tabletop as well as full-scale emergency exercises on a regular basis to familiarise the involved parties and constantly update the emergency, safety and security procedures at the airport. For instance, BIAL, with the support of the Government of Karnataka, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), airlines and airport authorities and all other stakeholders, conducts full-scale mock exercises to test and to enhance the emergency response mechanisms of the airport as well as the local administration.

SP’s: Is the Bengaluru International Airport ready to handle the Airbus A380?

Hungerbuehler: The current 45-metre-wide runway at the Bengaluru International Airport is built as per Code E for the Boeing 747. Technically, it is capable of handling an A380, but not on a frequent basis. By the time traffic flow at Bengaluru grows to substantial numbers, making regular landings of an A380 viable, the second runway which will be designed to handle Code F (A380) aircraft will be functional.

SP’s: Although airlines such as GoAir, Indigo, SpiceJet, and JetLite account for 42.2 per cent of the market, there is no low-cost terminal at BIAL. Given the distinct advantages in terms of lower operating cost, why isn’t there a low-cost terminal at BIAL?

Hungerbuehler: Our prime focus has always been to enhance passenger experience at the airport in every possible way. We believe that all passengers in the domestic sector have a similar service need while travelling. We as an airport have been constantly innovating and upgrading our services and processes. The common-use model implemented by BIAL is highly cost-effective for both airlines and concessionaries as it saves them the effort of managing the underlying infrastructure. The airport is a full-fledged service provider, maximising the efficiency of shared resources, thereby reducing the costs for passengers as well. In our case, the compact integrated terminal for domestic and international traffic allows best possible use of the facilities and is at present the most cost-effective solution. Additionally, our streamlined processes ensure faster turnaround making the operations as well as travel through the Bengaluru International Airport more economical for passengers.

SP’s: Since May 2008, the time when BIAL airport was commissioned, domestic traffic continued to fall till March 2009. What is your perception about the growth of traffic in the future?

Hungerbuehler: A common trend observed at most airports across the world as well as in India early last year was that the passenger traffic had indeed dropped owing to the recessionary environment. However, today we are proud to state that the total annual traffic at Bengaluru as of now is at 11 million passengers. The annual international traffic growth is at 13.6 per cent while annual domestic traffic growth is at 24 per cent. Additionally, cargo also showed an upswing in comparison to September last year, the monthly cargo volume increased by 29 per cent. Annual cargo tonnage is growing at an encouraging 30.9 per cent crossing 2,00,000 tonnes in the past one year. The figures are a clear indication of the market recovery from the recession effects which prevailed earlier and we expect this positive growth to continue.

SP’s: What are the expansion plans for BIAL?

Hungerbuehler: The new Bengaluru International Airport is envisioned to meet the growing aviation needs of the city through the development of a passenger friendly, well-operated and financially sound airport. The Master Plan ensures that the size and capacity of the airport’s facilities is in line with passenger traffic forecast and projected cargo growth. With 4,000 acres of land allocated, there exists a scope for expansion of this airport. What one sees today at the airport site is just one part of the Master Plan. With the current infrastructure, we are confident of handing the traffic for the next two to three years. Till the final Master Plan is realised, this airport will be a work-in-progress project for the next 10 to 15 years with gradual but continuous expansion phases, the way it was initially envisioned and planned.

In the short term, by the year 2015, the air traffic at Bengaluru International Airport is estimated to increase from the current 11 million passengers annually to approximately 17 million. In keeping with this rapidly growing passenger traffic to and from Bengaluru, the Terminal 1 (T1) expansion of the Bengaluru International Airport will have enhanced capacity and operational performance. The expansion is scheduled to be completed in 18 months from the commencement of its construction and will enhance the terminal space from 72,000 to 1,34,000 square metres.

SP’s: By when is the proposed parallel runway expected to be operational?

Hungerbuehler: Planning for the second runway is still under way and the approximate expected date for commencement of operations will be around 2015.