The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), the operator of Bengaluru International Airport in India, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in various areas of airport operations, including security, passenger experience, cargo, airport development, consulting and training.
The MoU was signed by Conrad Clifford, regional vice president for Asia Pacific for IATA, and Hari Marar, president for airport operations for BIAL, on the sidelines of an industry event in New Delhi. The MoU is the first of its kind that IATA has signed with an Indian airport. One of the highlights of the MoU could see IATA and BIAL implementing trials of new technologies and processes, and testing concepts at Bangalore Airport.
“This will place Bangalore International Airport in the forefront of airport operations,” said Clifford. “These trials will ensure that global best practice solutions can be appropriately adapted to the Indian environment, and will provide guidance for rolling out the implementation to other Indian airports.
“An important objective of the MoU is to promote the efficient development of civil aviation in India to meet growing demand. By 2035, India’s passenger traffic is forecast to exceed 400 million passengers, more than double that of today. The industry will support 19 million jobs and US$172bn of India’s GDP. But for this potential to become reality, India’s airports need to have the necessary infrastructure capacity while implementing efficient processes that embrace the latest technologies.
“The ultimate beneficiaries of this MoU are travelers in India, airlines and Indian civil aviation in general. We look forward to a similar cooperation with other like-minded airports in India,” concluded Clifford.