Bengaluru airport handles 33% more pax in Q1 at over 8 million

The Bengaluru international airport has clocked around 33 per cent growth in passenger traffic in the June quarter at over eight million, the airport operator said today.

In the June 2017 quarter, the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), the busiest in the south and the third busiest in the country, had handled 6.04 million passengers. In last fiscal year, the airport had received 26.9 million passengers.

"Passenger growth in the first quarter grew 32.9 per cent at 8.02 million, while cargo volume grew at 16.6 per cent. On the single day during the quarter, the airport welcomed a record 98,869 passengers," the airport said in a statement.

It also notched up a daily record with 98,869 passengers arriving and departing on June 30, marking the busiest day at the airport since start of operations.

Domestic and international passengers grew by 35.8 per cent and 16.8 per cent, respectively, primarily on the back of holiday season and special offers by airlines, according to the release.

As much as 6.94 million domestic passengers and 1.08 million international fliers passed through the airport during the reporting months.

Air traffic movement improved by a robust 32.9 per cent to 58,054, from 43,673 movements last year. The highest-ever movement in a single day was 685 on May 4 and the airport averaged 638 movements per day, it added.

The single-runway Mumbai airport handles an average of 950-960 movements a day.

The reporting quarter also saw cargo operations scaling new heights as a record of 97,486 million tonne, a 16.6 per cent over the same period in 2017. June alone saw cargo volume touching 34,398 million tonne, a new monthly record, the release said.

International cargo volume at 61,888 million tonne was 15.5 per cent more than the same three months period in 2017, while domestic cargo at 35,598 million was 18.7 per cent more, the airport said.

As many as 33 passenger airlines - eight domestic and 25 international - connect the city with 67 destinations (45 domestic and 22 international) with Gulf Air that began operations on May 1, being the new addition connecting the city to Bahrain with daily flights.

That apart, as many as 11 cargo airlines, including one domestic and 10 international, also operate from the airport.

Delhi remained the top domestic destination in terms of passenger traffic (1,115,145), followed by Mumbai (875,474) and Kolkata (473,089), while top international hubs were Dubai (209,425), Singapore (163,638) and Abu Dhabi (77,166).

The airport also continued to show a strong on time performance for departures at 85.6 per cent, which the airprot's managing director and chief executive, Hari Marar, attributed to "timely expansion of facilities, adoption of cutting-edge technology and developing services centered around providing a seamless, easy customer experience".

KIA was the second greenfield airport built on a private-public partnership in May 2008 after the Cochin airport which began operations in June 1999.

Canadian NRI Prem Watsa-owned Fairfax owns 54 per cent and Siemens Projects Ventures 20 hold per cent in the airport, while state government through Karnataka State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation owns 13 per cent and the remaining 13 per cent is held by the national operator Airport Authority of India.