Strap: International arrivals saw 14% growth, domestic 2.6%
The Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, received 33.65 million passengers in the calendar year 2019, registering a 4 per cent growth, over the previous year’s 32.33 million.
While international passenger traffic witnessed double-digit growth of 14 per cent, an upswing from 4.27 million in 2018 to 4.87 million in 2019, domestic traffic grew by 2.6 per cent, from 28.05 million to 28.78 million.
The year 2019 has been turbulent 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 management (ATM) at Bengaluru airport were down by 0.1 per cent as against the double-digit CAGR witnessed in the previous five years (2014 to 2018). The total ATMs during this period was 235,058 as against 235,190 ATMs in 2018.
Notably, international movements remained on the upswing, growing by 13 per cent with a total of 30,556 ATMs as against 26,966 in 2018, owing to the launch of new routes and new flights during Winter 2018. Domestic movements saw a slump of 1.8 per cent to 204,502 ATMs from 208,224 ATMs in 2018.
Meanwhile, domestic cargo remained positive, registering a 4.1 per cent growth. The total domestic cargo processed during this period was 149,603 tonnes, as against 143,701 tonnes in 2018. In the same period, international cargo dropped by 4.1 per cent, with the overall cargo shipment down by 1 per cent.