BENGALURU: With an overall growth of 22.5 per cent in 2016, Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) continues to be the busiest airport in South India. In 2016, KIA had 22.18 million passengers.
KIA also witnessed the highest single day traffic with 75,515 passengers on December 21. This was the highest since KIA started operations in 2008. Also, air traffic movement increased by 19.9 per cent, with the airport now connecting 45 airlines to 66 destinations in India and abroad.
The airport saw a record-breaking two million passengers travelling in November 2016 and an all-time monthly high of 2.15 million passengers in December 2016 - the single highest traffic in a month for any airport in South India. Earlier in the year, KIA had reached the landmark of welcoming its 100 millionth passenger in 2016.
Cargo hub of South India
Cargo movement saw a 9.4 per cent growth in 2016. G V Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director, KIA, said, “It was another strong year for us at the airport. Despite many challenges, we have grown exponentially in terms of passenger traffic. Our cargo business has seen an incremental growth which reaffirms our growth strategy to develop our airport as the cargo hub of South India,” he said. In 2016, the total cargo was 3,14,060 million tonnage compared to 2,87,198 in 2015.
In 2017, KIA will focus on introducing interactive digital solutions that will create value for the customers,” he said.
Terminal expansion
To cater to the growing traffic, Terminal 1 is undergoing expansion till the first phase of Terminal 2 is complete. Work on T2 will commence this year.
It will be constructed in two phases — the phase-1 which will cater to 25 million passengers annually and the phase-2 will add 20 million passenger capacity. When completed, T2 will cater to 45 million passengers.
The combined capacity of T1 and T2 will be approximately 65 million passengers. Earthworks for the second runway commenced in February 2016. The new runway will cater to all type of aircrafts, including Airbus A380. The second runway will be ready by September 2019.