BENGALURU: Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport could see a significant growth in passenger traffic from December 2019 onwards. The upcoming second runway of the KIA has received an in-principle approval from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to operate the mammoth Airbus A380 aircraft from its second runway which is expected to be operational from December 2019. New Delhi is the only other airport in India which has been given permission for this aircraft.
Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Bangalore International Airport Limited, Javed Malik, told The New Indian Express, “We have received an in-principle communication this week from DGCA for the A380 Code ‘F’ aircraft. They have given us the green signal after getting an okay for it from the global regulator, the International Civil Aviation Organisation.”
No Indian airliner has this huge carrier in its fleet so far. Emirates, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways and British Airways are among the international airliners which operate it, he said.
“This opens up a potential market for us in future. With anywhere between 600 and 700 passengers on board an A380, it carries double the capacity of the aircraft that take off and land at the airport presently,” Malik said.
Among the flights that are operated at KIA are A350, A330, A320, A390, Boeing 737 ATR, Boeing 777, Boeing 747 and Boeing 748.
The second runway will be operational by December next year. “We are presently handling 38 Air Traffic Movements (number of arrivals/departures) per hour and the number will touch 55 ATMs when the second runway begins,” the COO said.
To permit take off and landing of aircraft during low visibility conditions, the new runway will have an advanced instrument landing system of the CAT-III (B).
Design approvals for the second terminal were carried out in 2017. It is expected to carry 25 million passengers in its First phase, set to be completed by June 2021 and another 20 million passengers in its second phase (deadline not yet announced).
BIAL had called for tenders in connection with the first phase last month. “The airport has transported 26.91 million passengers in the just concluded financial year (2017-2018) and the figure will touch 32.5 million passengers for the financial year 2018-2019,” Malik said.