Bengaluru airport posts jump in share of non-metro traffic from 55% to 64%

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB/ BLR Airport) said on Thursday it now connects61 destinations across India, indicating a positive trend in air travel to non-metro cities.

BLR Airport catered to 58 domestic destinations before the onset of the pandemic, it said in a statement.

The new additions are Jorhat (IndiGo), Gorakhpur (IndiGo), and Jharsuguda (SpiceJet) that commenced operations in January 2021.

BLR Airport will soon have flights to five new destinations Rajkot, Durgapur, and Dibrugarh later this month, followed by Agra and Kurnool in March 2021.

Silchar, Darbhanga, Amritsar, Nashik, and Jabalpur were the other new routes that were launched earlier in FY 2020-21, taking the overall tally of new routes for the financial year to 13.

A daily average of 270 flights, carrying an average of30,000 passengers per day, departed to non-metro cities in January 2021, it was stated.

Meanwhile, the improved regional connectivity has led to three-fold increase in transfer passengers.

BLR Airport posted an increase in share of non-metro passengers from 55 percent in FY19-20 (April 2019 to January 2020) to 64 percent in FY20-21 (April 2020 to Jan 2021), it was stated.