Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), a company controlled by Indian infrastructure developer GVK Infrastructure, held a celebration at the Bangalore airport to announce its name change from Bengaluru International Airport to Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru and to inaugurate its new Terminal.

BIAL is a Public Limited Company formed to build, own and operate Bangalore's greenfield terminal at Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru.

The concessionaire structure is the following:

• Private promoters hold a 74%  (GVK  43%, Siemens Projects Ventures 26% and Flughafen Zurich AG- 5%) stake in BIAL.
• The government holds a 26% (Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation - 13%, Airport Authority of India - 13%).

Sanjay Reddy, GVK group chairman, said:

Since the airport's operations began in 2008, we have worked with the state government to promote the region, its rich culture and heritage. Our objective is to play a vital role in the state's economic development and realise our vision of being the gateway of south India

The new terminal has 26 boarding gates, 15 aerobridges, including one special one to facilitate A380. A new, high-tech control centre helps both airlines and concessionaires to streamline their processes. The airport has the capacity to cater to 20 million passengers annually.

In August 2011, GVK acquired an additional 14% stake in the project  from Siemens taking its total shareholding to 43% and making it the largest shareholder in the consortium the runs the airport. In late 2009, GVK bought 29% in the airport from Flughafen Zurich and Larsen & Toubro.

Bengaluru International Airport was developed as a Greenfield airport and went operational on May 24, 2008 after a construction time of 35 months. The concession agreement was signed on 5 July 2004.

The overall costs for phase I of the project was Rs 1,411.8 crore (US$323 million). It was financed by ICICI Bank (52.1 %), an interest free, repayable loan from government of Karnataka (24.8 %) and equity from all shareholders (23.1 %). Financial close took place on 28 June 2005.

BIAL's concession to operate the airport is granted for 30 years, with a renewal option for another 30 years.

The initial phase of the project was to have a capacity to handle five million passengers annually, but the master plan provides for an ultimate capacity of 40 million passengers. In 2012, the airport had 11.9 million passengers.