On September 4, 2008 a private aircraft carrying Congress President Sonia Gandhi made an emergency landing at the Bangalore airport. Gandhi got down from the plane and, to everyone's surprise, boarded the small airside car and sat in the front seat. At the wheel was Marcel Hungerbuehler, President of Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL). He drove her to the VIP lounge and, in the next 15 minutes, briefed her about the modern airport. Two weeks later, on another trip via Bangalore, Gandhi remembered to greet him. "She is very down to earth, very simple,'' says Hungerbuehler.
The Swiss national loses no opportunity to sing paeans of his baby, either - the Bangalore airport, born after severe pain. When he was BIAL's chief operating officer overseeing the airport operations set up in 2007, many of Bangalore's IT services chieftains had attacked the project objecting to its location (40 km away from the city centre). Acrimony notwithstanding, the airport took shape in 33 months and opened to traffic in May 2008. His team is now pencilling plans to develop an airport city and a special economic zone.
A marathon runner, Hungerbuehler barely looks 60. A veteran of 42 years in the airports sector, Hungerbuehler's association with the industry began in 1968 as an apprentice with Swissair. Aviation was in a growth phase in Europe then - not much unlike the current period in India. By the time he was 20, Hungerbuehler was working in Swissair's office at JFK Airport in New York. He later served the group in senior positions in Singapore, London and West Asia. Before joining BIAL in January 2007, Hungerbuehler was in charge of Swissport Zurich, the largest ground handling organisation at Zurich Airport. He jumped at the Bangalore airport offer because, he says, "Building a greenfield airport, planning everything from scratch, was exciting. Not a moment have I regretted coming here. ''
The CEO who got Hungerbuehler to BIAL - Albert Brunner - was his schoolmate in Switzerland though the two had not met after leaving the school. Hungerbuehler seems to have long forgotten the airport's birth pangs. "You can make the best out of any place with your attitude,'' he says.
