Bengaluru emerges as air travel hub in south as connecting traffic doubles

Airport currently serves 74 domestic destinations compared to 54 pre-pandemic; most of the new additions are non-metro destinations

Fairfax group-owned Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) is positioning itself as the hub in South India with the addition of 20 domestic destinations in the last year.

An increase in non-metro routes has also led to the doubling of connecting traffic at Bengaluru airport in calendar year 2021. Connecting or transfer traffic on domestic routes were up 19 per cent in 2021 from 10 per cent in pre-Covid times.

Currently the airport serves 74 domestic destinations – the highest ever since the airport opened -- compared to 54 prior to the pandemic. These additions have been mainly to non-metro destinations and as a consequence flights to non-metro routes increased from 58 per cent in pre-Covid times to 63 per cent in 2021, BIAL said in a statement. Traffic on non-metro routes increased 27 per cent reinforcing strong demand on the routes, it added.

The major airports contributing to high volumes of transfer traffic at Bengaluru were Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad and Goa.

While increase in number of destinations and non-metro routes led to growth in transfer traffic, another factor which influenced one or two stop travel was the restrictions in the pandemic including limitations on flights or quarantine restrictions imposed by certain states.