HAL Bangalore International Airport is a domestic and international airport. It is also known as HAL Airport or Hindustan Airport. This airport is considered the fourth busiest airport in India, which serves the Indian city and state of Bangalore, Karnataka. According to 2006 statistics, the airport handles an estimated 7.5 million passengers a year. On an average 300 flights per day take-off and land at the airport. The airport earns an estimated Rs 1-1.5 billion from landing and aircraft parking fees. These are all earned from the scheduled airlines. The airport authorities have a plan to supplant the old airport by a new Bangalore International Airport.

Hindustan Aeronautics handles the maintainance part of the airport. HAL also develops aircrafts for the Indian Armed Forces. The Bangalore airport prioritises civilian flight movements. The HAL Bangalore International Airport was set up by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in 1964. The airport was set up with the aim of serving for defence purposes. But in 1980, the airport started serving domestic commercial flights. Later, in 1997, the airport also began to serve international destinations. To maintain the growing air traffic, the airport has undergone a series of expansions and upgradations. While 3.6 million passengers is the rated capacity of the airport, it serves 7.5 million per year. It led to such a situation some time ago, when HAL requested the airlines to cease addition of flights to and from Bangalore. Their main concern was national security.

In 2005, the Airport Authority of India started constructing a new airport as the replacement of HAL airport by the name of Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL). And HAL airport would only serve the purpose of test and research facility for HAL. The new airport is proposed to be built at a distance of 35 km from the Bangalore city and a new 6-lane highway will be constructed in order to reach the airport. It will take one hour time to reach the aerodrome from the city.

The HAL Bangalore International Airport has separate check in sections both for domestic and international arrivals as well as domestic and international departures. The airport also possesses 2 aerobridge facility preferably for the international flights. The HAL Bangalore International Airport is situated at a distance of 12 km from the city. Arrivals for both the domestic and international is the same. Check in for the domestic departures at the airport is sited at two ends of the terminal - Gate 1 - for Indian Airlines, Go Air and Kingfisher Airlines, while Gate 2 gives access to Jet Airways, Air Deccan, Spice Jet, Jagsons, Air Sahara and Paramount. The departure terminal for the domestic purpose has a book shop, a couple of phone booths, a snack shop, post office and also limited seating area. The domestic section has 3 baggage belts which are shared by all the airlines using this terminal.

International departure is situated on the ground floor of the HAL Bangalore International Airport. Recently in 2006, this section of the airport had undergone renovation work and extentions. This section of the airport has 2-3 baggage X-Ray machines. Passengers need to take an escalator to the first floor and pass through immigration after initial check in is completed. They need to pass through customs control (which is optional), and then go through security screening afterwards. Passengers move towards the gate hold area once security screening is done, which is common to all international departures. There is very limited space for seats in this place. The gate area has a coffee shop and a curio shop, which during peak departure times (10 pm to 1:30 am every night) fills up completely.

As of October 2006 due to heavy traffic, during late-night peak hours, there is often a long line to get into the international departure terminal of the airport. After passing the check-in baggage x-ray, there is a queue for checking in. Airlines like British Airways have "Fast Bag Drop" counters for those passengers who have antecedently checked in online prior to arrival at the airport. This sort of facility is undoubtedly praiseworthy as it reduces the time to wait substantially. After that passengers also need to spent 5-10 minutes for immigration. In case of those passengers who require hand baggage security screening, after the immigration process, it can take additional 20-30 minutes for them.

There is no lounge for Business or First Class passengers at the HAL Bangalore International Airport. Some airlines like Air France provides check-in facilities at the Leela Palace Kempinski Hotel near by, and use the hotel facilities as a pre-departure lounge. In case of arrivals, it takes place on the first floor with the immigration counters at the Airport. After the immigration process is done, passengers need to come down taking an escalator towards the baggage belts and their hand-baggage needs to be screened (x-ray) by the customs department. A duty free counter and a money exchange service is present at the baggage belts area. After all these formalities are over, passengers come out to the pre-paid taxi counter (run by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation).

Those who are connecting to domestic flights after exiting from the international arrivals, they need to turn right to the domestic departure area. The airlines serving domestically at the HAL Bangalore International Airport are, Air India-- Indian Airlines (Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune); Deccan (Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Kochi, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Hubli, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Madurai, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Vidyanagar, Vijayawada, Vizag); Go Air (Hyderabad, Mumbai); IndiGo Airlines (Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune); Jet Airways (Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvanathapuram); Jet Lite (Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai); Kingfisher Airlines (Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Guwahati, Hubli, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Tirupati, Thiruvananthapuram); Paramount Airways (Chennai, Hyderabad); SpiceJet (Ahmedabad, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune).

The airlines that provide international flights to and from Bangalore are-- Air Arabia (Sharjah); Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle); Air India (AI/IC) (Bahrain, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Dubai, Muscat, Sharjah, Singapore); British Airways (London-Heathrow); Emirates Airline (Dubai); Gulf Air (Bahrain); Jet Airways (Singapore); Lufthansa (Frankfurt); Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur); Singapore Airlines(Singapore); SriLankan Airlines (Colombo); Thai Airways International (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi). Air France Cargo (Paris-Charles de Gaulle); Air India Cargo (Frankfurt, Paris); Alitalia Cargo (Rome); Blue Dart Aviation (Chennai); Emirates SkyCargo (Dubai); Etihad Crystal Cargo (Abu Dhabi); Gulf Cargo (Bahrain); Jet Airways (Delhi); Lufthansa Cargo (Frankfurt); Malaysia Airlines Kargo (Kuala Lumpur); Qatar Airways Cargo (Doha); Singapore Airlines Cargo (Singapore); SriLankan Cargo (Colombo); Thai Airways Cargo (Bangkok); Transmile Air Services (Kuala Lumpur) are the airlines providing cargo services.

The HAL Bangalore International Airport has one runway. There are 4 entry/exit taxi-ways, 2 on the east side called E2 (perimeter) and another E1. Similarly to the west side there are 2 taxi-ways - W2 (perimeter) and W1. There are now 5 aprons, apron 1 through apron 5. Apron 1 is the main apron, and has 10 parking bays. Bay 5 and bay 6 correspond to the 2 aerobridges. Apron 5 was opened in 2006 and has 5 bays.

An uninterrupted upgradation procces for the Bangalore airport is taking place since 1990. Low priced aircraft carriers like Air Deccan have made Bangalore a significant hub. The Bangalore-Mumbai route is growing to become the second busiest route in the country, second only to Mumbai-Delhi. HAL has a plan to make best utilisation of the resources at the airport soon after the civilian operations shift to the upcoming international airport at Devanahalli. As the HAL chairman told reporters, `Apart from maintaining the airport for our test flights, military operations and VIP flights, we intend to set up an MRO facility to service the growing number of civilian aircrafts, operated by public and private airlines in the domestic and international sectors.`