BIAL has a new chiefAppointment reflects GVK's greater control in Bangalore airport

BANGALORE: There's a change of guard at the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), reflecting the change in ownership of the company.
The company announced on Thursday that the current director of operations Hari Marar will replace Marcel Hungerbuehler as the president-operations effective March 1, when Hungerbuehler's contract period ends. The move hints at greater management control by the Hyderabad-based power and infrastructure company GVK Group.The group now holds 29% of the shares in the company, having bought a 12% stake from Zurich Airport and the whole of L&T's 17% stake in late 2009.
Hungerbuehler came from Zurich Airport, which now holds only 5% in BIAL. He had replaced Albert Brunner, another Zurich Airport executive. However, Zurich Airport will still have a representative at the senior level. Daniel Bircher, the head of safety office at Zurich Airport, will take over Marar's role as director-operations.
GVK, which also runs Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, is represented on the BIAL Board through G V Krishna Reddy, who is vice chairman, and G V Sanjay Reddy, who is MD. The group is expected to buy Siemens Projects Ventures' 40% stake in BIAL as and when the shares come off the lock-in period. About 14% of the stake comes off lock-in this year and 26% by 2015. The state and central governments hold 26% stake.
Marar, who joined BIAL in 2006, is said to have a strong planning and strategy background with over 15 years of experience in hospitality, airline and airport operations. Speaking to TOI, Marar indicated his priority would be to create enough capacity for the fast growing airline passenger traffic in Bangalore.
"We are expanding the existing terminal to handle 20 million passengers (the current capacity is about 12 million, according to BIAL). We have already started planning for the second terminal. It might take between 3-7 years, depending on when we think we will exhaust the 20 million capacity. We are focused on adding capacity in small doses depending on the air traffic," Marar said.
The Terminal 1 (TI) expansion is estimated to cost Rs 1,000 crore and is expected to be completed in 18 months.
BIAL recorded a 20.86% increase in passenger traffic to 11.24 million in the January-December period of 2010 compared to the corresponding period last year. So the airport is almost at full capacity already.
To ease congestion, the number of security checking booths has been increased and the seating capacity too has been expanded within the existing space, partly by reducing retail space. Marar feels the immediate challenge is to maintain high levels of efficiency when the expansion of T1 begins in the next 3-4 months.
Hungerbuehler said the airport is also introducing more self check-in kiosks and making the airside apron a Wi-Fi zone that will help airlines download content easily and improve their turnaround time. BIAL is also expected to become the first airport to offer mobile check-in. The airport authorities are ready with the IATA standard 2D barcode compliant technology, and it's now a matter of coordination with the airlines and how they upgrade their departure control systems.
Asked what he plans to do after leaving BIAL, Hungerbuehler said he hadn't decided. "I have spent a lot of time at airports," he said, suggesting he may look at something different.
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