Plaza Premium lounges at BLR airport closed
 

Sorry if this already been discussed some where (couldn't find anything in search)

From last 1 month (almost), Plaza Premium lounge in both Domestic and International sections at BLR are closed. Also, "Above ground" lounge too are closed. It is apparently due to end of a long contract. Now, the lounges are being operated by some obscure BLR lounge company.

Plaza Preimum was an excellent lounge, perhaps the best among all of the airports in India I should say. Shame that it has gone. To top it, there was a choice with Above the ground lounge as well which too was very nice.

The replacement operator seem to be new to business, and is quite amateurish in presentation and services with highly limited choice of food and seating. Why BLR is going downhill in terms of pax service when it is expanding at fast rate?

Loss for all of us who use BLR regularly :(

It looks like TfS won the tender: https://www.moodiedavittreport.com/t...-hotel-tender/

While TfS is not super stellar, the Indian lounges that I have visited so far which were operated by them were not bad either.

Both lounges are shut down by TFS for refurbishment until April 2020. TFS run the Mumbai lounges and they are fantastic so expect a significantly better experience.

give it a little bit of time....i'm sure once the lounges are re-opened then they will be up to standard....

Thanks all for your informative replies. Appreciated :)

But are you saying that all the lounges in the Domestic & International sections are closed till April 2020?

I was at the Above Ground lounge, or more accurately, in the lounge that was in that location, in the international departures area of BLR last week, so I don't think it's been closed for a month. I did see that the location where the other (Plaza Premium, I believe?) lounge used to be was closed with indications of construction work. Also, not 100% sure about this as I wasn't paying much attention, but I think the Above Ground lounge had signs with a different name on it as well. But it was definitely open and pretty much the same as I've seen it before.

In searching for news about this, I find that some news sources seem to be incorrectly saying that the lounges are all completely closed. This article:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/69540196.cms
suggests that they are "partially closed", but it also mentions a timeline of 18-20 months which would take the closure into 2021!

One can find several articles like this one, though:
https://www.outlookindia.com/outlook...or-renovations
claiming all the lounges have been closed from June 1, which doesn't square with what I experienced last week. Weird. You'd think it's not so hard to get some accurate information on things like this. Or is it all "fake news" these days? :-)

I was there on 7/24 and the part which was AGL earlier was open. No alcohol that day coz of dry day in Bangalore. I was flying international in the daytime so the lounge was virtually empty. They have temporarily changed seating arrangements to squeeze in more guests but it's definitely not enough to accommodate night flights. For next few months, expect the Bangalore lounge to be a zoo.

This said, hopefully once the renovation is complete, the new lunge will be nice.

I think the name was something like Bangalore international Lounge. I asked the staff and they told me the renovation is going on in what used to be Plaza Premium Lounge. Small changes included packed snacks and peanuts instead of peanuts in a jar at the bar.

Interesting Link..Had some good specs on BLR airport.

I was at BLR again recently - in the international departures section - and saw that there have been no changes in the past couple of months. The old Above Ground Level lounge is still operating with the makeshift name of BLR International Lounge. No signage or anything to indicate any plans for the refurbishing and re-opening of any lounge.

The one of the domestic lounges is shut for renovation, they will probably do international after that.

Plaza lounge area is closed for international so I guess renovation is happening there as well