Bengaluru International Airport wins Routes Asia Airport Marketing award

Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) has beaten four other competing airports in the Indian sub-continent and bagged the Routes Asia Airport Marketing award from its customers -- the airlines.

Congratulations to Marcel Hungerbuehler and his team, most especially Ashutosh Chandra who leads airline marketing efforts at BIAL.

The airlines within Asia nominated five airports whose marketing efforts during 2009 made a real impact on their future network development plans.

The airlines considered the efficient and useful marketing activities of the airports on their network, by geographical region, irrespective of their size.

The award was based on how creatively an airport has made the most of its available resources, initiatives taken to improve the airport’s infrastructure, the terminal and runway, and on how best an airport tried to develop airline relationships, keep existing routes and secure new ones. The airports were also judged on the basis of new routes launched and growth in traffic.

BIA has attracted seven new airlines to Bangalore, though Gulf Air has withdrawn service till end October due to the slide in air traffic.

However, the international airlines have a grouse with the BIAL management. Domestic carriers are defaulting on payments and then deducting 15 per cent to make "timely" payments. International airlines are paying on time but are being denied any rebates.

I really feel for the BIAL management. They are in a very tight spot, and the financial woes of Kingfisher Airlines who operates 40 per cent of Bangalore's flights on adds to their worries.

Hopefully this minor spat should get resolved soon.