Mumbai: Bengaluru airport which had handled a record 32 million passengers in FY 2019-20, witnessed a pandemic-led drop of 66% in traffic during FY 2020-21, said the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) in a press statement issued on Friday.
The airport handled only about 11 million passengers since domestic air travel resumed in India on May 25 last year following a two-month suspension.
The impact of Covid second wave was apparent, the airport had registered the highest single day (since May 25, 2020) passenger traffic of 69,421 on February 13, this year. Had the Covid second wave not hit weeks later, the airport would have recorded a higher passenger traffic in March.
The airport connects Bengaluru to 70 domestic destinations by direct flight with Delhi (11.6%), Kolkata (11%) and Mumbai (6.3%) being the top three in terms of passenger traffic.
"A total of 10.45 million passengers flew domestic routes, recording a 63% drop, as compared to 27 million in FY2019-20," said BIAL.
International routes witnessed 4 million passengers in 2019-20 – the passenger footfall, however, declined substantially to 0.46m in FY2020-21, a decline of 90%.
"This is mainly attributed to the continued suspension of international flights and Covid-19 restrictions across the globe. After showing signs of recovery during the middle of the fiscal year, the traffic dropped significantly due to the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in India, beginning February 2021," it added.
The reduced slots for airlines at airports driven by DGCA guidelines, too, added to the lowered numbers. Air traffic movements (ATMs) dropped by 50% to113,993 from 231,051 in 2019-20.
"While domestic movements reduced by 49% at 102,801, international traffic saw 11,192 movements, lower by 61% in the last 311 days of operations," it said.
25/06/21 Manju V/Times of India
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