Bengaluru: The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here served 33.65 million passengers in 2019, registering a rise of 4 percent growth from 32.33 million in 2018, a statement by the airport operator said on Monday.
“The aviation market in India is in recovery mode after a volatile period. We estimate that passenger volumes at KIA will be between 55 to 65 million passengers per annum (mppa) in the next five years,” said Bangalore International Airport Ltd Chief Executive and Managing Director Hari Marar in a statement.
To prepare for the rising passengers, Marar said the airport is investing Rs 13,000 crore to expand the infrastructure, including the first phase of Terminal 2.
International passengers passing through the airport recorded a double digit growth of 14 per cent, from 4.27 million in 2018 to 4.87 million 2019.
Domestic traffic grew from 28.05 million to 28.78 million passengers, registering a growth rate of 2.6 per cent.
According to the statement, 2019 proved to be a turbulent year for Indian aviation, affecting by the grounding of a large airline, problems in certain models of aircraft and other challenges.
“These factors had a ripple effect as the air traffic movement at Bengaluru Airport were down by 0.1 per cent as against the double-digit CAGR witnessed in the previous five years,” it said.
The airport reported total air traffic movement (ATM) of 2,35,058 in 2019 against 2,35,190 in 2018.
“Notably, international movements remained on the upswing, growing by 13 per cent with a total of 30,556 air traffic movement as compared to 26,966 ATMs 2018, owing to the launch of new routes and new flights during winter 2018,” said the statement.
However, domestic movement declined by 1.8 per cent to 204,502 ATM in 2019 from 208,224 ATM in 2018.
