From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Mar 26: The Kempe Gowda International Airport Ltd (KGIAL), Bengaluru crossed the 150 million passenger mark, making it a record, on Sunday.
The airport since its opening in May 2008 has grown at approximately 13 percent year-on-year resulting in the rapidly growing number of air passengers each day.
The first 50 million mark was achieved in 1,671 days on December 19, 2012 and an additional 50 million was achieved in 1,185 days, a growth of 41 percent over the previous 50 million mark.
The next 50 million passenger mark was achieved over a period of slightly more than two years (737 days).
“This is truly a reflection of Bengaluru's growing economic might. Owing to the development of Bengaluru as the Silicon Valley of India and the strong growth of other sectors in the region, there has been a significant increase in demand for air travel, resulting in soaring traffic figures,” said Hari Marar, Managing Director & CEO, Bangalore International Airport Ltd.
Two prestigious industry awards stand testimony to the Airport’s focus on excellence and customer satisfaction – Skytrax named the BLR Airport the Best Regional Airport in India and Central Asia for 2017 and ASQ Rankings named the Kempe Gowda International Airport, Bengaluru, as the Second Best Airport in the World in 15 to 25 million passengers per year category,” he said.
The Kempe Gowda International Airport, Bengaluru welcomed a record 25.04 million passengers, air traffic grew by 4.3 % with 184,348 ATMs and handled 339,461 metric tonnes of cargo in 2017.
Summer Schedule Begins
The Kempe Gowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport) commenced its summer schedule on March 25. This schedule will be in effect until October 27, 2018.
The highlight of the schedule is the return of global carrier Gulf Air — to provide daily flights to Bahrain— and the addition of two new domestic routes to connect 47 domestic destinations, said an official press release.
Gulf Air, which will begin operations from May 1, 2018, 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).
On the domestic front, the two new routes are: Vadodara (to be operated by both Jet Airways and IndiGo) and Jammu (Indigo).
Indigo rolled out two flights on March 25 to connect Vadodara via Kolkata and Jammu via Delhi. Meanwhile, Jet Airways will operate a direct flight to Vadodara from August 1, 2018.
During Summer 2018, the daily Air Traffic Movement (ATM) is expected to touch 666 movements per day (591 domestic and 75 international) and will progressively reach 687 per day (609 domestic and 78 international).
During the course of the recently concluded Winter Schedule, BLR Airport recorded an average of 621 daily movements (547 domestic, 74 international).
The planned average international ATM per day during Summer 2018 is expected to grow by 8 per cent, while the domestic movements are expected to touch 14 per cent.
The overall growth forecast for Summer 2018 is pegged at 13 per cent, up 1 percent compared to Summer 2017.
During Summer 2018, the hourly runway capacity will continue to be 38 ATMs per hour.
The top 4 airlines, Emirates/ Etihad Airways/ IndiGo/ Jet Airways operate 8.1 percent, each, of total international operations, followed by Air India with a 7.6 percent share.
The top domestic carriers will be IndiGo at 41.8 per cent of total domestic operation and Jet Airways (including JetLite) at 15.5 per cent, the press release said.