Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru
Facts on BLR
BLR is a fossil of an older spelling. Bangalore was the city's official name until 1 November 2014, when it formally became Bengaluru; the three-letter code stayed put, as did the operator's name, Bengaluru International Airport Limited.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport is named for Kempe Gowda I (1510-1569), a chieftain of Yelahanka under the Vijayanagara Empire. With the emperor's permission he built a mud fort in 1537 and laid out Bengaluru Pete, a grid of trade streets still named for what they sold: Akkipete for rice, Balepete for bangles.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport opened as Bengaluru International Airport. Karnataka proposed honouring the city's founder in February 2009, passed a resolution in December 2011, and the Union Government approved it in July 2013; the renaming took effect on 14 December 2013.
Source: Wikipedia
The city outgrew its old HAL Airport, whose apron could park only six aircraft and which had no room to expand. The replacement at Devanahalli took a decade of stalled negotiations; its first commercial flight, Air India AI609 from Mumbai, landed on 23 May 2008, the night before the official opening.
Source: Wikipedia
Terminal 2 was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as a tribute to Bengaluru's nickname, the Garden City. Inaugurated on 11 November 2022 and built for about 5,000 crore rupees, its first phase covers 255,000 square metres and adds 25 million passengers of annual capacity.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport spreads over 16 square kilometres (6.2 sq mi) about 35 km north of the city. In FY2025-26 it handled more than 44.47 million passengers and 532,012 tonnes of cargo, making it India's third-busiest after Delhi and Mumbai.
Source: Wikipedia
The second runway, 09R/27L, opened on 6 December 2019 with IndiGo flight 6E466 to Hyderabad. Once the original runway reopened from rehabilitation on 31 March 2021, Bengaluru became the first airport in South India to run parallel runway operations.
Source: Wikipedia
Terminal 1's newer lounge is called "080" after the city's telephone trunk dial code, and is fitted out with local artistry, regional culture-inspired interiors and botanical elements as a nod to Bengaluru.
Source: Wikipedia
Bengaluru's airport is Karnataka's first fully solar-powered airport, developed with CleanMax Solar, and its connections reach all six inhabited continents, five of them by direct flight.
Source: Wikipedia