Bengaluru: The Kempegowda International Airport crossed the 150 million passenger mark on Sunday. The airport has grown at approximately 13% year-on-year basis since its opening in May 2008. The first 50 million mark was achieved on December 19, 2012. “This is a reflection of Bengaluru's growing economic might. Owing to the development of the city, there has been a significant increase in the demand for air travel, resulting in soaring traffic figures,” said Mr Hari Marar, MD and CEO, Bangalore International Airport Ltd.
The airport welcomed a record of 25.04 million passengers and air traffic growth by 4.3% with 1,84,348 air traffic movements and 3,39,461 metric tonnes of cargo in 2017. “Two prestigious industry awards also demonstrate the airport’s excellence – Skytrax named the BLR Airport the Best Regional Airport in India and Central Asia for 2017 and ASQ Rankings it the Second Best Airport in the World in 15 to 25 million passengers per year category,” Marar said.
This summer, KIA to offer more KIA stared its summer schedule on Sunday which will be in place till October 27, 2018. According to an official release, the global carrier Gulf Air will be back and will provide daily flights to Bahrain. Also, two new domestic routes will start.
Gulf Air will begin operations from May 1 and will be the only airline to offer daily connectivity from Bengaluru to Bahrain. With this, Bengaluru will connect 22 international destinations (20 direct and two connecting flights). On the domestic front, the two new routes are Vadodara (to be operated by both Jet Airways and IndiGo) and Jammu (Indigo).
