Three new foreign airlines to operate from Bengaluru airport

Three new foreign airlines to operate from Bengaluru airport
Our Bureau

Bangalore, Dec. 14

Bengaluru International Airport says it has shaken out of the slowdown and would be adding at least three international routes in the summer of 2010.

Leading the pack of passenger airlines are Air China, Qatar Airways and Air Asia.

Air China plans to fly an A321 daily on the Shanghai-Chengdu-Bangalore route. Qatar Airways is keen on starting a daily A321 service from Doha starting Summer 2010.

Air Asia is also slated to begin operations from Kuala Lumpur in April. “Flights like Lufthansa and Air France that had reduced their frequencies have expressed reinstatement to [earlier levels]. Others like Oman Air, Sri Lankan Airways, Malaysian Airlines and Tiger Airways are looking to increase weekly frequencies,” BIAL, which operates the 18-month-old airport, said on Monday. It said new passenger demand for BIAL in the near to medium term would primarily come from airlines based in Asia and West Asia.

NEW FREIGHTERS

Freighters FedEx, Aryan Air Cargo and Quikjet also want to begin operations this season.

BIA said it had already added two new domestic freighters, India Post and Deccan 360.

“The airport is looking at adding four new routes (three international and one domestic) every year. It is also looking at two new international carriers every year. The focus will be on connecting Bangalore to China, Africa and the US. The future at the BIA looks positive with new airlines, new frequencies and increased traffic numbers.” The airport has seen an uptrend in passenger traffic since July this year. It expects to touch 9.3 million during the calendar year, the airport operator said.

It saw the highest traffic of 2.45 million in the last quarter since it opened in May last year. It handled cargo of 1.61 lakh tonnes. In the second half of the year, domestic carriers stabilised with higher traffic numbers — something they could not achieve a year ago. BIAL said, “This is a positive sign of traffic growth. It is expected to continue and result in new markets being opened by airlines in the near future. Winter is one of air traffic's peak seasons and the growth looks optimistic.”

Passenger traffic rose from 7.27 lakh in January 2009 to an estimated 8.67 lakh in December 2009 The growth rate of cargo handled also went up from 1.8 per cent in June to 20 per cent in December.

PERFORMANCE UP

For the July-September quarter, the Airport Service Quality, which is the world graph of airport performance standards on a scale of 1 to 5, was rated a high 4.17 for BIA. Mr Marcel Hungerbuehler, CEO of BIAL, said, “This compares it to the best airports in the world. More importantly, the online as well as physical feedback received from passengers has been positive and encouraging.”

The airport has 30 domestic and 18 international destinations and handles 280 air traffic movements each day.

Efficiency improved with 85 per cent departing flights being punctual or within 15 minutes of the scheduled time of departure. The availability of key airport resources averaged 99 per cent. It took six minutes for the first baggage to arrive on the belt. Domestic passengers had to wait an average 2.5 minutes for check-in and international travellers four minutes.