BENGALURU: Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) has shown robust growth of 23.3 per cent in the first three-quarters of this fiscal, as compared to the previous financial year, reveals data released by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Mangaluru and Hubballi airports recorded positive growth, while Kalaburagi and Mysuru airports show a high negative growth of over 31 per cent during the compared period.
AAI has released its Air Traffic Report (ATR) with comparative traffic statistics for April-December 2023-2024, as well as April-December 2022-2023, along with patronage figures for December 2023 alone.
Bengaluru had 2,80,08,253 flyers in the three quarters of the ongoing financial year as compared to 2,27,17,581 during the corresponding period in the previous fiscal, accounting for 23.3% growth. December 2023 recorded 8.5% growth over December 2022, with 34,01,107 flyers. Of the overall flyers, the number of international flyers at KIA in nine months last year showed 25.9% growth over the previous fiscal, with 34,66,834 flyers. KIA had domestic passenger traffic of 2.45 crore in 2023-2024, up from 1.99 crore from April to December of 2022-2023.
Bengaluru has beaten the national average in all categories of flyers. AAI’s ATR across India states, “International passengers, domestic passengers and total passenger traffic have increased by 24.3%, 16.6% and 18% respectively during the April to December 2023-2024 period, as compared to April to December 2022-2023.
Mangaluru airport, the only other international airport in the state, has seen a healthy rise of 15.2% in its domestic patronage at 11,07,056 flyers during nine months, as compared to the past, while its international patronage has gone down by 3.5% this fiscal with 3,92,778 passengers. Hubballi had a 21% increase in flyers with 2,76,646 this financial year, as against 2,28,624 in the corresponding period earlier.
Bengaluru’s HAL airport, presently used by most VIPs, had a 70.9% increase in patronage (12,783) over the previous fiscal (7,480) as campaigning for the Karnataka elections by national leaders, and the inauguration of a few projects prior to it had Central ministers frequenting the capital city.