Ahead of Air Asia operations, many clueless about how to reach T2
BENGALURU: With Terminal 2 of KIA set to touch at least 15,000 flyers after Air Asia India shifts base here from Wednesday, a huge infrastructural challenge is in the offing. Even today, a good chunk of cab drivers make flyers alight at Terminal 1 as they are unaware of the route to be taken to reach there.
Free shuttle buses then take the air passengers to T2, located 600m away. With just one airline, Star Air, operating from the new terminal of KIA since its launch on January 15, the daily footfalls daily hover at around 200 flyers only. Star Air operates the small-sized Embraer 145 aircraft from Bengaluru to Kalaburagi and Hubballi airports and back.
However, the scenario will change as Air Asia operates Airbus 320 neo and Airbus 320 ceo flights. A spokesperson told TNIE, “Bengaluru is the home base and the largest hub for Air Asia India and we will operate 43 daily departures connecting Bengaluru to Delhi, Goa, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Pune, Jaipur, Lucknow, Ranchi, Kochi, Chennai, Vishakapatnam and Surat. Departing flights alone can accommodate 7,750 passengers. There will be 43 arrivals consequently,” he said. Flights to Imphal and Srinagar too are in the offing.
T2 presently only provides a temporary parking facility which is equipped to handle 180 cars at a time.
Deepak Bhatia tweeted on Sunday. “@BLR airport Why have you made T2 a show piece? There are no cabs by Ola and Uber. Buses drop you in the middle of the highway. I took more time to wait for my luggage and cab than to reach Bengaluru.”
Over the last one month, other passengers too spoke about car drivers going in circles to find the entry to the new terminal. Asked about it, an airport source said, “The situation will improve soon. Once a big name like Air Asia starts operations here, T2 will become quite busy and the public will get to know about it better.”
A source at BIAL said, “Complementary shuttle services are provided by the airport operator, BIAL, which operates at a frequency of 10 mins. There are clear signages all over T2. Information is also there on our website and social media.”