BENGALURU: Beginning Monday, the Kempegowda International Airport will start buzzing with activity after a lull of two months. A total of 215 flights on an average will arrive or depart from here daily from May 25 to June 30. In every 10 minutes, there will be a flight taking off from the airport.
Airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited, officially announced that flights will resume operations from May 25. “
“BLR Airport will handle an average of 215 Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) per day, 108 departures and 107 arrivals, with reduced terminal capacity, to ensure social distancing norms,” an official release said.
Stating that the schedule was only 32% of the original schedule that was expected to be implemented this summer in line with the Ministry of Civil Aviation directive, it said, “The top airline during this schedule by ATMs will be Indigo with 47% while Air Asia and Spice Jet have 16% and 14% respectively. “
To maintain safe distance, “slots have been optimized in 10-minute intervals spread over an hour through the day,” the release said.
Indigo, which will run the maximum number of flights from KIA will tentatively have 49 flights departing from KIA, a spokesperson said. She was unable to give the number of incoming flights or the destinations these flights will be leaving for.
Air India will have six flights arriving and departing from KIA. This is its schedule: Flights departing to New Delhi (6.30 am), Mumbai (6.45 am) Hyderabad (8 am), Calcutta (8 am), Chennai (2.10 pm) and New Delhi (5 pm). The departure flights will arrive at these timings: Delhi (00.25 am), Hyderabad (12 pm), Bombay (12.10 pm), Delhi (2.05 pm), Calcutta (3 pm), and Chennai (6.10 pm).
Spiejet will run 17 flights out of Bengaluru and will have 17 incoming flights including detinations like Delhi, Calcutta, Patna, Chennai and Pune with departures also to 17 airports including these locations.
Spicejet chairman Ajay Seth said the airline has implemented numerous steps to ensure passenger safety onboard its flights. “Spicejet aircraft now have synthetic leather seats. These non-porous seat do not allow COVID-19 virus to penetrate through them and can be easily wiped off compared to standard fabric seats.”
BIAL added that the quarantine policy of the State government would be adhered to for all passengers.