Kempegowda International Airport-Bengaluru (KIAB) has emerged as South India’s busiest airport and the country’s third largest by handling 15 million passengers.

KIAB, operated by Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), saw the passenger volume go up to 12.86 million in the last financial year.

Mid-size category

Late Sunday evening (March 22), KIAB welcomed its 15 millionth passenger. This has graduated the airport to the mid-sized airport category (15 to 25 million passenger airports) classification within seven years of initiating operations.

The 2014-15 passenger traffic report at KIAB has shown an upswing by 19.3 per cent marked by 21.4 per cent growth in domestic and 11.2 per cent growth in international traffic while the air traffic movements (ATMs) rose by 13.2 per cent this fiscal year as compared to same time last year.

Fiscal year 2014-15 also witnessed 15.9 per cent growth in cargo, led by 25.3 per cent growth in domestic and 10 per cent growth in international cargo.

Pharma Cold Zone

Supporting Karnataka’s vision of becoming a pharma hub, the airport cargo partner Menzies Aviation Bobba recently inaugurated its Pharma Cold Zone in 2014. KIAB’s cargo partner Air India SATS is expected to set up its ‘AI SATS CoolPort’ perishables handling center at the airport.

“This milestone is a reinforcement of KIAB’s commitment to provide its passengers a seamless travel experience combined with good connectivity, world-class infrastructure and service delivery excellence. With this exponential growth we have consolidated our position as India’s third largest airport and South India’s busiest airport with highest passenger traffic. KIAB will most likely end the fiscal year with 15.24 million passengers” said GV Sanjay Reddy, Managing Director, BIAL.

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