Traffic on Airport road near Yelahanka Airbase during the inauguration of the Aero India 2025 in Bengaluru on Monday, 10 February 2025.
Credit: DH Photo/B K Janardhan
Fifteen German aircraft pilots who were in Bengaluru for the first time experienced the notoriety of the city’s traffic when they missed the inauguration and the aircraft performances at Aero India on Monday.
The team, who took a private cab from their hotel in north Bengaluru, was stuck in traffic for almost two hours, which cost them the inaugural ceremony.
However, the missing link here is that they didn’t use the arrangements (meaning lanes) demarcated by the traffic police for the foreign delegates.
The team that arrived at the Yelahanka Air Force station last week in their A330 passenger aircraft has been staying at a hotel that is 17 km away from the Aero India venue. They left the hotel around 8 am and reached the venue well past 11 am, when the ceremony was over.
“The traffic flow was smooth till we reached the venue, but at the entry point we were just stuck for almost one-and-a-half hours,” said a German pilot wishing to remain anonymous. “Just yesterday, our local guide and I were discussing the city’s infrastructure, and today we experienced it first-hand,” he jokingly said.
However, he wasn’t disappointed as the team had been holding the rehearsals from the day they arrived. “We are looking forward to interacting more with the native people and promoting our aircraft. It’s okay we missed the show Day One,” he said.
‘Counterflow lane for delegates’
Meanwhile, a well-placed officer told DH that the German team clearly missed the arrangements they made. The traffic police had created a contraflow lane for smooth movement of delegates’ vehicles. The lane was solely created for delegates’ convenience, according to the officer.
“This year our plan has worked out really well. The traffic congestion time along the stretch closer to the venue during the last aero show was four to five hours; this year it has come down to one hour,” the officer emphasised.
He noted that even the people were cooperative and the flow of traffic was managed well this year.
Towards the end of the event, most people thronged Hunsamaranahalli tank bund to witness the Aero India, parking their vehicles wherever they could. Though it created problems for a while, it eventually smoothened out well.