Mangalore: Passenger Traffic Shot up by 55 per cent at Bajpe Airport
The Hindu
MANGALORE, Oct 3: International passenger traffic at Mangalore Airport has shot up by 55 per cent in one year even as the airport is observing the second anniversary of international operations on Friday.
International operations began at the airport on October 3, 2006 with Air India Express, the low cost carrier of the Air India, introducing a flight to Dubai.
M.R. Vasudeva, Director of the airport, told The Hindu that international passenger traffic at the airport stood at 1.11 lakh between October, 2006 and September, 2007. This went up to 1.72 lakh between October, 2007 and September, 2008. Hence the passenger traffic was up by 55.45 per cent in one year.
The number of international aircraft movements (arrival and departure) during this period went up from 720 to 2,200.
He attributed this to increase in the number of flight schedules to different destinations in West Asia. The Air India Express connected Mangalore with a new destination, Kuwait, in this July.
Total traffic
The Director said that the total passenger traffic (domestic and international) at the airport between October, 2006 and September, 2007 stood at 5.05 lakh. Of that, 22 per cent constituted international traffic. The total passenger traffic at the airport went up to 5.13 lakh between October, 2007 and September, 2008. In this, the share of international traffic stood at 33 per cent.
The airport has flight connectivity to seven West Asian cities in five West Asian countries. The cities connected are Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Sharjah, Kuwait, Doha and Muscat. The airport presently handles 25 international flights a week. In late 2006, it was handling only eight international movements a week.
Meanwhile, Ratan Bali, Deputy Regional Director, Air India, Mumbai, had stated here in July that the airliner had plans to connect Mangalore with Riyadh and Dammam airports in Saudi Arabia. He was here in connection with flagging off flight service between Mangalore and Kuwait.
Vasudeva said that AAI had permitted the airport to extend the length of its new concrete runway by 350 m. Then the length of the runway will be increased from the present 2.4 k.m. to 2.8 k.m.