BENGALURU: The boom in passenger traffic at Bengaluru airport continues, with it recording a 32 per cent increase in patronage in the first half of this financial year when compared to the corresponding period, the previous year, suggests the Airports Authority of India (AAI) report. This is well over the national average of 22.1 per cent (18.31 crore) during the corresponding period, its Air Traffic report reveals.
Bengaluru airport witnessed 1,84,74,104 flyers this year between April and September, compared to 1,39,93,742 flyers last year. International passengers were around 22,29,524 compared to 16,77,541, seeing a hike of 32.9 per cent, putting international traffic one per cent above domestic traffic (31.9 per cent).
Bengaluru airport appears to be unaffected by the stoppage of certain routes which severely impacted airports like Belagavi, Mysuru and Kalaburagi. Mangaluru, which has the only other international airport in the State, saw a dip of 0.9 per cent in its international flyers. However, domestic traffic showed an increase of 9.5 percent recording 6,86,726 passengers. Hubballi also saw a 30.1 per cent increase.
However, Kalaburagi and Belagavi saw a huge dip in traffic by about 35.8 per cent and 28.4 per cent respectively. Mysuru saw a dip of 26.7 per cent, and went into the five-figure mark, touching only 76,475 against 1,04,330 last year.
A source in Belagavi airport said, “The discontinuation of services along different routes by different airlines has hit us hard and caused a drastic dip in patronage. Spicejet flights to Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, Alliance Air to Pune and Star Air to Nasik, are all not operational now.”
A source at Mysuru airport said, “We had Trujet flights from Mysuru to Belagavi running full, but the airlines stopped operations. IndiGo operations from Mysuru to Hubballi were also discontinued. Alliance Air operating from Mysuru to Mangaluru did not have good patronage. Our present runway can only accommodate ATR-72 aircraft. When the runway is expanded, other airlines might consider operations.”