BENGALURU: A clear trend towards a surge in air travel is witnessed across Karnataka, according to data released by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for the first half of this fiscal.
Statistics reveal that from April-September of 2022-2023, a total of 15 crore domestic and international passengers (15,00,44,013) have taken to the skies from all airports across India as compared to just 6.36 crore (6,36,62,702) during the corresponding period last year.
Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (KIA)’s passenger share in this comes to 1,39,93,742 as compared to 55,60,468 from April to September 2021-2022. The clear trend discernible in Bengaluru is that of global travel which has shown a nearly five-fold increase over its figures in the previous financial year.
It has recorded 16,77,541 international travellers as compared to just 3,26,535 earlier.
On the domestic front too, KIA has recorded double the number of the previous fiscal. Passenger data reveals that 1,23,16,201 passengers have travelled from Bengaluru to different parts of India in the six months beginning April, as compared to 52,33,933 during the months last year.
Mysuru and Mangaluru airports almost have recorded three times the numbers flying in the first half of this financial year as compared to the previous year, which was impacted by the pandemic.
Delhi, Mumbai, Goa and Chennai airports hold the top four positions. The month of September has been extremely good for air travel in the state. KIA has seen 24,06,879 travellers as compared to just 13,07,562 during the same month last year.
Aviation expert Captain Mohan Ranganathan, however, has a word of caution on this trend. “This boom in travel is more the effect of the lockdown syndrome for nearly 2.5 years. Everyone wants to just get out and travel. The majority of travellers are business class and have been doing work-from-home (WFH) for a long.
Air travel has become expensive and family travel has actually dipped. A ticket between Bengaluru and Goa is today Rs 15,000 as compared to just Rs 3,000 earlier. It is impossible for a family to travel on such prices and it is not going to decrease in future,” he said.