BENGALURU: A slice of history in the country’s aviation history was recorded at 8.50 am on Sunday when the first flight from Terminal 2 of the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, operated by Star Air, took off to Kalaburagi. The first flight to land at KIA too was by the same airline on its return leg.
A Dollu Kunitha performance, a cake-cutting ceremony, fun events and the lighting of the traditional lamp inside T2 premises marked the launch of its commercial operations. They also delayed the take-off of S5-117 by 5 minutes.
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The first passenger to walk inside the terminal as well as get on board Star Air’s Embraer-145, a 50-seater one, was aviation enthusiast Gautam Musinipalli. This senior developer of J P Morgan at San Jose in US is delighted that his visit to India coincided with the take off of the maiden flight from the new terminal. He also came back to Bengaluru by the return leg of the flight (S5-188).
Musinipalli reached the airport at 5.40 am, three hours before the scheduled trip. “I reached the entrance of Terminal One. As of now I think no taxi driver is familiar about to reach the new terminal. A free shuttle service was waiting there to ferry passengers to T2. I was literally the first to get on board the bus too! Even the driver of this bus got confused with the road to take to reach the new terminal and apologized for the mistake,” he said.
The well-travelled techie was bowled over by the swanky terminal. “It is too good. I rate it better than the Osaka airport in Tokyo and the New York airport. My entry was smooth using my retina (face recognition technology) and the checks were very quick,” he said. There were too many counters open and too few passengers and it took just two minutes for a person to get the boarding pass, Musinipalli added. “Most of the food or other shopping outlets inside are yet to be launched. We were given complimentary breakfast, a lovely silk shawl by the airport authorities and sweets by Hotel Taj, all of which made us feel really special. As I was the first passenger, I was allowed to light the lamp with others,” he recounts.
The aviation enthusiast occupied the first window seat on the flight, 1A. “My ticket costs Rs 3,500 and I paid Rs 900 extra for the front row seats. I booked my ticket five days ago. My return ticket though was done at the last minute and so I ended up paying Rs 6,000 plus 900,” he said.
He was put off with the price charged for breakfast. “I paid Rs 100 for a cup of coffee and Rs 150 for a plate of upma during my onward trip and Rs 150 for a poha plate during my return trip,” he added.
He had earlier travelled on board the first Emirates A380 launch from Bengaluru to Dubai as well as the first flight run by Nippon Airlines to Tokyo from KIA in the pre-covid time, he added.
It reached Kalaburagi at 9.50 pm. When the flight took off from Kalaburagi half an hour later, former Minister and Afzalpur MLA Malikayya V Guttedar, his wife Vanitha M and brother Santhosh Guttedar were on board. “I had some work in Bengaluru and so decided to travel by the first flight from Kalaburagi to the new terminal. I found T2 excellent. We were guided very well by staff there,” the MLA told TNIE. “I travel to Bengaluru often and find Terminal One very crowded and indisciplined. The new one is nice and clean. Let us see after the rush picks up if it can be maintained well,” he added.