Kempegowda International Airport sees rise in passengers, cargo movement

Bengaluru: The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), Bengaluru has achieved 32.9 percent passenger growth in the first quarter of the current financial year registering a record 98,869 passengers in a single day with air traffic growing at 32.9 percent.

According to an official press release issued by Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), the total number of passengers who passed through KIA in the first three months grew to 8.02 million from 6.04 million passengers during the corresponding period in 2017-18. It also notched up a daily record with 98,869 passengers arriving and departing on June 30, marking the busiest day at KIA, since the start of operations.

Domestic passengers grew by 35.8 per cent and international passengers grew by 16.8 per cent, respectively, primarily because of the holiday season and special offers by airlines. Around 6.94 million domestic passengers and 1.08 million international fliers passed through the KIA between April and June 2018 . 

 Showing robust growth, Air Traffic Movement (ATM) improved by 32.9 percent, with a total of 58,054 movements as against 43,673 movements last year. The highest-ever ATMs in a single day was 685 on May 4, 2018, as the airport averaged 638 movements per day. 

This quarter also witnessed  cargo operations scaling new heights as a record 97,486 metric tonnes of cargo was processed in three months, representing 16.6 percent more than 83,584 metric tonnes handled in the first three months of the previous financial year.

 As many as 33 passenger airlines eight domestic and 25 international airlines connected Bengaluru with 67 destinations (45 domestic and 22 international), during this period. Gulf Air, which started operations on May 1, 2018, is the new addition, connecting Bengaluru to Bahrain with daily flights. A total of 11 cargo airlines, including one domestic and 10 international, connect Bengaluru.

The top domestic destinations during the first quarter were Delhi (1,115,145), Mumbai (875,474) and Kolkata (473,089) while the top international destinations were Dubai (209,425), Singapore (163,638) and Abu Dhabi (77,166).

“The key factors, that have enabled us to deliver in such challenging times, are timely expansion of facilities, implementation of cutting edge technology and innovation and developing services centered around providing a seamless customer experience,” said Hari Marar, Managing Director and CEO of BIAL.