Infrastructure expansion at Bengaluru airport

The Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB) handled 33.65 million passengers during the calendar year 2019 as against 32.33 million in the previous year, registering a 4.1 per cent growth. While international passenger traffic witnessed double-digit growth of 14.0 per cent, an upswing from 4.27 million in CY 2018 to 4.87 million in CY 2019, domestic traffic grew by 2.6 per cent, from 28.05 million to 28.78 million. The year 2019 has been a turbulent year for Indian aviation, mostly impacted by the closure of a large airline and supply-side challenges caused by the grounding of some aircraft types. These factors had a ripple effect as the Air Traffic Movements (ATM) at KIAB were down by 0.1 per cent as against the double-digit CAGR witnessed in the previous five years. The total ATMs during 2019 was 2,35,058 as compared 235,190 in CY 2018. Notably, international movements remained on the upswing, growing by 13.0 per cent. On the domestic front, Delhi and Mumbai continued to be the most travelled destinations from Bengaluru while Singapore and Dubai were the top international cities by annual scheduled passenger movement in CY 2019. Seven new destinations and two new international airlines were introduced during the course of the calendar year. Two more Japan Airlines to Tokyo and Lufthansa to Munich are set to operate from summer of 2020. Currently, Bengaluru is connected to 82 destinations, including 25 international cities. Thirty-six passenger airlines (eight domestic and 24 international, including four Indian carriers) operate to and from KIAB on a regular basis. In addition, there are 14 cargo airlines, including two Indian carriers. The government is investing 13,000 crore for creation of new infrastructure to cope with the high rate of growth.