Bengaluru airport, explained

One that you can fly from. Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) at Devanahalli handles every scheduled commercial passenger flight into and out of Bengaluru. HAL Airport in the east of the city still exists and is still used, but not for scheduled passenger services, which is the source of most of the confusion. If you have a ticket out of Bengaluru, it goes from BLR.

No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding about BLR. There is one airport with two terminals. Terminal 1 handles domestic flights and Terminal 2 handles international ones along with some domestic services. A "transfer from the domestic airport to the international airport" is really a walk or shuttle between two terminals on one campus.

Two. Terminal 1 is the original and is domestic. Terminal 2, the newer one, handles international flights and a portion of domestic ones. They are separate buildings with separate kerbs, so arriving at the wrong one costs you real time.

Two parallel runways. The second was commissioned in December 2019, which is what allows the airport to keep operating during maintenance on the other and is a large part of why BLR handles delays better than it used to.

Your boarding pass and airline confirmation state the terminal, and that is the only source worth trusting. Airlines do move between the two, so a rule you learned last year may be wrong this year. Check the confirmation the night before rather than assuming.

A free shuttle bus runs between the two terminals around the clock, every 10 to 15 minutes, and the ride itself takes about 10 minutes. Walking between them is not practical. Published distance figures disagree, partly because they measure from different points, so plan on the shuttle timing rather than a number: allow half an hour door to door and more if you are checking in again.

Not as a long-established service, and we would rather be straight about this than confident. The Namma Metro Blue Line to the airport was announced to open in phases during 2026, with the airport to Hebbal segment slated first and the Hebbal to KR Pura section later. Whether it is carrying passengers on the day you travel is something to confirm with BMRCL. Do not plan a 5 AM departure around it until you have.

Kempegowda International Airport Halt (station code KIAD), about 3.5 km from the terminal. It is a halt rather than a major station, with limited services, so most rail travellers still arrive via KSR Bengaluru City or Yesvantpur and cover the last stretch by road.

Majestic, meaning the Kempegowda bus station and KSR Bengaluru railway station, is about 35 km from the airport and roughly 60 to 95 minutes depending on the hour. BMTC Vayu Vajra buses run the route through the day and night. A pre-booked cab picks you up at the specific entrance you name, which matters here more than almost anywhere, because the interchange has several and the wrong one is a long walk with luggage.

Entry is tied to your flight rather than the clock, and you are generally allowed into the terminal a few hours before departure on production of a valid booking. Airlines recommend arriving two hours ahead for domestic flights and three for international. Turning up six hours early does not reliably get you inside, so plan the cab for the window rather than the extreme.

Yes, with short-term and long-term options at both terminals, charged by duration. If you are being dropped off, the kerbside is free for the few minutes a drop takes; it is waiting that gets expensive. QuicReach assisted pickups include a ₹150 parking allowance precisely because meeting someone inside means parking properly rather than circling.

Lounge access at BLR runs on card-issuer programmes rather than one airport scheme, so it depends on your specific card and network rather than on the airport. Check your card issuer app before you travel; the lounge operator will scan the card at the door and the answer is the same either way.

Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), a public-private consortium. Fairfax India Holdings is the majority shareholder at around 54 percent, with Siemens Project Ventures at about 20 percent and the Airports Authority of India and the Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation holding roughly 13 percent each.

It depends enormously on where in Bengaluru you start, which is why a single number misleads. Hebbal and Yelahanka in the north are on the airport corridor already. Majestic is about 35 km. Whitefield, Koramangala and HSR are 40 to 45 km. Electronic City, JP Nagar and RR Nagar are 48 km or more and cross the city diagonally. Each area page below carries its own distance, route and realistic travel time.