BENGALURU: To boost occupancy on its hi-end, air-conditioned Vayu Vajra buses (airport buses), which were popular among air passengers as well as profitable for the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), it opened up the online booking of tickets for them in the first week of December. A month-and-a-half down the line, it appears that the move has not paid off.
Specifying booking details on these buses, a senior official said that only 63 bookings had been made online last month after this mode of booking was launched on December 6, 2020. A sum of Rs 10 is charged above the ticket for online booking.
"Of them, 47 tickets were booked on buses running from different parts of the City to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) while 16 were booked in the reverse direction. For this month (up to January 18), we have booked 35 towards the airport and 9 in the reverse direction," he said.
Asked about the reasons behind launching this facility, the official said that it would motivate one to get on board a bus and head to the airport once the ticket booking had already been done. Ït would also offer a sense of assurance to the passenger," he said.
However, he pointed out that it was part of an overall trend of declining passengers on Vayu Vajra buses. "Presently, we carry around 5,000 passengers. It used to be nearly 12,000 passengers before COVID struck. The number of buses we are plying is now just 61 and they compared to 120 buses run before March," he said.
The 61 buses totally operate 400 trips between them and have an occupancy figure of 50%, he pointed out. "The 120 buses used to have occupancy figures ranging between 60% and 70%," he said.
Meanwhile, the two routes -- Kempegowda bus station to KIA and Electronic City to KIA -- continue to remain the most popular.
The ridership decline is an offshoot of the decline in number of air passengers post-covid, he added. He also ruled out any kind of competition from the recently launched trains to KIA from the City.