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This report appears to be be an attempt by some vested interest group to distort  the truth.

Obviously the report is trying to extend the HAL capacity beyond its limits and trying to marginalize BIAL's capacity as much as it can, If HAL's capacity is 9 mil, then how can BIAL's capacity be just 9.85 mil. Is this a joke? 

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Hi narayan82 ,

I wish to clarify your statement "To me the annual capacity of an airport depends on the average amount of time spent by the user at the airport".

Airport capacity is a highly complex issue which starts right from the approach road in terms of free movement & access of passengers to the terminal, then the way the terminal is designed-all indian airport terminals lacking pier concourses have this problem where passengers after being processed(checkin & security check) have nowhere to go and congregate in a limited area - it is very important to spread them out and keep them moving along concourses to their gates even if they spend just 15 mins in the terminal building. Please look at it this way, in a crowd of 1000 stationary people standing let's say for 10 mins wouldn't you find it difficult to cut your way through the crowd to reach the gate for departure in 6 mins? Delhi airport T2 is notorious for causing delays because passengers cannot get checked in and go to their aircraft in time inspite of arriving 3.5 hours ahead (http://www.gulfnews.com/World/India/10197927.html).  We of course have other operational aspects which fall in the landside-to-airside and airside-to-landside areas in terms of how we transfer passengers. In the current BIAL terminal design even if we have 2 runways the terminal will choke. The same single runway airport with well designed - roadways, terminal, aprons, taxiways & ATC operations (revamped aviation rules, efficient departure and approach sequencing) -all of these operating in tandem as a precise, synchornized, well orchestrated ballet dance will drastically increase capacity.

On a general note though... ->

Some may go out of their way to prove BIAL is no good and this includes the theory that it has marginally greater capacity than HAL. A 2 year old would find it hard to believe unless HAL has grown buildings,parking space & roadways overnight. It is even harder to believe these capacity reports coming from AAI an organization that has consistently botched up capacity issues and other airport managment issues given the fact that 4 or 5 aircraft arriving together or departing together in a short span of time is called "congestion" leading to hell & chaos in the terminals. I have made some analysis in http://bialterminal-indian-aviation.blogspot.com/ .It is not well formatted and it does not have fancy charts or inundating data. It is simply the facts about operational problems that have existed in HAL (and similar Indian airports) and will plague BIAL if they don't redesign their terminal irrespective of the 2nd runway. Even 2 runways with bad landside (bad terminal & roadway design) can cripple the airport.

Without politics and with a strong unified vision HAL airport could have been made to come close to Gatwick. That chance came and went a long time back. It is BIA Devenahalli's turn now and I hope they live up to the task overcoming the fact that there are a lot of folks using every bit of available information/fact/statistics to see it derailed and get HAL opened. Using the same approach it won't take more than 10  mins to come up with a list of gross violations by DGCA&AAI to have them shut down, one of the most shocking ones being -> they allowed simlutaneous takeoffs from 2 converging runways in Delhi totally disregarding ICAO stipulations and safety norms. Google it if anybody has doubts. We can in fact start using the same critical fault finding approach to other airports -> CDG (terminal collapse); LAX (Runway incursions) but I guess it is not going to get us anywhere.

 There are entire books on airport capacity and if anybody of us could come close to getting it right we would be in the business of building airports. Is any reader on this forum really into the airport building business? If there is then please voice an opinion. All of us can quote ICAO manuals etc. regarding airport design and come up with calculations but the fact is there to see when we go to Internatinal airports abroad..that is when we get to see what a really busy airport is. 

Slightly off topic but indirectly related to perceived problems at BIA and why....

Going by the criticisms and the apparent problems being reported in privatized airports like - Mumbai (GVK running into expansion problems), Delhi (utter chaos http://www.gulfnews.com/World/India/10197927.html), BIAL (we have all seen the heavy criticism coming from the  "open HAL" quarters) I would definitely question if it is really the problem with these reputed multinationals carrying out the management and work. Well I don't think so,  it is more of a systemic failure that we regularly see (NICE corridor being a prime example). Cochin and Hyderabad airports seem to be ok at the moment because the traffic is lower. But once the traffic increases they will also face the similar capacity issues, hyderabad may still fare better because they have separated departure and arrivals vetically in a true sense thus having more space, all that needs to be done is add pier concourses to the terminal building.

Last but not the least, I agree with a previous comment about airport capacities being fairy tales.. in a way.. in the context of the recent AAI's assesment about HAL. I can do better actually, I can convert it into double the capacity just by knocking down some walls to convert the buildings into one huge complex, throw out whatever shops & seats are there, provide folding chairs to seat as many people as possible, the excess people can spill out into the approach road. And what about standards? ..well..to hell with them..let's create our own. This way it doesn't take much to paint a 20plus million passengers per annum figure for HAL.

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I also understand from earlier reports that the "surcharge" on fuel/litre by BIAL is considerably less than other airports.

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Devesh,

 All that I am looking for is what is the square footage area available for tdetermining the peak hour capacity. In fact only the annual passenger numbers are being doled out without giving the exact peak hour capacity numbers for HAL. Numbers for BIAL is readily available for public where as the numbers for HAL airport (so called Public entity) is harldy available in any public forums. May be public here means the previliged ones only. In any case I would like to see comparison numbers without being forced to accept the capacity jargons.

 Syed 

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kbsyed61,santsub,Nags123,narayan82,

Guys, well, this is INDIA!! :-) A corrupt system with corrupt politicians and bad populist measures along with vested interests and ill informed people ....:-) and this is what happens and keeps happening :-). I read the previous 4 posts which make absolute sense. We should be least surprised if HAL opens and a spanner is thrown to halt the expansion of BIA following which there will be more blame game blaming BIA for not expanding. In the meanwhile the very same people voiceforous about having 2 airports will do nothing about the basic necessities like - horrible road infrastructure NOR the sewage mixed drinking water (http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/37168439.cms
http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/13/stories/2008051355450100.htm) and we will definitely not see writ petitions or public interest litigations from the likes of GR Mohan.

Here is a joke on a lighter note - A scientist shows some students groups of frogs from different countries kept in their respective jars. All the jars are covered except the one containing the frogs from India. The students are curious and asked why that particular jar is not covered. The sicentist explains that in the Indian jar if a frog tries to rise(progress) and get out then the other frogs immediately pull it down so he is not worried about frogs escaping :-) but it is not so in the other cases.

There is a joke that inspite of our talents, India can be defeated by ourselves!! and there is not enemy needed to achieve that task! I agree with narayan82's assesment that we're the woodcutter. 

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