Passenger growth has BIA smiling

Passenger growth has BIA smiling
Bangalore, Dec 14, DHNS:

With the sluggish air traffic growth showing signs of improvement globally, Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) has recorded a positive upward trend in passenger trafficsince July this year.


The airport has reported passenger traffic figures of 2.45 million, the highest ever at the airport, since its opening in May 2008.

Releasing the latest air passenger traffic statistics, on Monday, in a review of traffic figures, BIAL said this trend provides an insight into the winter season and summer 2010 season forecast and points out to the civil aviation industry showing signs of a much awaited revival.

“In the last quarter, the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) which is a world graph of airport performance standards, the BIAL has been rated as high as 4.17 on a scale of 1 – 5, among the best airports in the world. More importantly, the online as well as physical feedback received from passengers has been positive as well as encouraging,” said Marcel Hungerbuehler, Chief Executive Officer, BIAL.

According to the airport authorities, the latter half of this year (2009) has resulted in domestic carriers stabilising with higher traffic numbers which they did not achieve earlier.

Positive sign

“This is a positive sign which indicates the traffic growth at the airport. This growth is expected to continue hereafter. The continued growth would result in new markets being opened by airlines in the near future. With winter being one of air traffic’s peak seasons, the growth henceforth looks optimistic,” said a BIAL spokesperson.

The statistics also show cargo on an upswing mode from June this year, in comparison to last year, with an increasing growth rate of 1.8 percent in June to 20 percent in December. This period also saw two new freighters, India Post and Deccan 360 being added to the domestic cargo operations in 2009.

“Other freighters FedEx, Aryan Air Cargo and Quikjet have also expressed intention to begin operations this season” the BIAL spokesperson added. Air China and Qatar to begin operations in 2010. So, would this trend carry onto 2010? To this BIAL says it is looking at the addition of two new international carriers every year, with a focus to connect Bangalore to China, Africa and US.

Leading the pack are Air China with the Shanghai – Chengdu – Bangalore route and Qatar Airways that has expressed intent to begin operations from Bangalore in Summer 2010.

Highlights

* Passenger traffic (Jan – Dec 2009): 9.3 million
* Cargo handled (Jan – Dec 2009): 161896 tons
* Domestic destinations: 30
* International destinations: 18
* Current daily Air Traffic Movements (ATM’s): 280
* Flight punctuality of over 85 percent
* Availability of key airport resources at BIA averaged
99 percent
* Baggage delivery: 6 minutes for the arrival of the first baggage on the belt
* Domestic passenger average wait time at check in: 2.5 minutes
* International passenger average wait time at check in: 4 minutes
* Passenger traffic rose from 727186 in January to an estimated 867718 in December