Bengaluru Airport recovers from Covid-19 slump, passenger traffic back to pre-pandemic levels

Due to the high traffic numbers observed in the current fiscal year (2022-23) until October 26. Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, is back to pre-COVID passenger levels. The volume of passengers increased by over 102 percent for domestic travel and by around 85 percent for foreign travel in October 2022 compared to October 2019, according to a statement from Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), the airport's operator. By the end of the last week of October, the airport had received 16.30 million travellers, up from 6.61 million at the same time last year.

"We are very optimistic that this upward trend will continue over the next few quarters," said Chief Strategy and Development Officer, BIAL, Satyaki Raghunath.

Also read: IndiGo is now world's 7th largest airline with daily departures of more than 1,600 flights

Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi, and Pune have been the top domestic routes accounting for 44 percent of all traffic. In contrast, Dubai, Doha, Singapore, Frankfurt, and Male have been the top international routes contributing to 54 percent of the international traffic in FY 2023 to date.

Growth in the international segment is expected to increase with more airlines inducting additional capacity and reinstating operations to and from the airport, it said.

Additionally, an increase in the number of flights to domestic destinations has led to enhanced connectivity to Tier II/III cities. As a result, the share of non-metro traffic at the airport increased to 58 percent, whereas transfer traffic accounted for 14 percent during the April-September 2022 period.

International carriers like Qantas and Cathay Pacific have commenced operations to and from the airport, and these launches have also led to a higher volume in passenger numbers. Emirates, Air France, KLM, Japan Airlines, and Kuwait Airways have expanded their operations, while Ethiopian, Malindo Air, and Air Asia have resumed scheduled passenger flights. It stated that the higher demand is one of the primary reasons for Emirates to deploy A380 to the airport.

With inputs from PTI