Mangalore Airport Traffic up by 92% : Surpasses Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai

Times of India

Mangalore airport sees phenomenal growth of 92%
Surpasses Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai
Third fastest growing tier-II city
Airport handles 42 international arrivals and departures per week
Handles 28 domestic arrivals and departures per day
Even on cargo front, impressive growth of 39%

Mangalore, May 18: Mangalore has shot to fame as the city’s Bajpe airport has recorded a phenomenal growth in air traffic movement of 92% in February 2008 compared to the corresponding period in the previous year.
Mangalore Airport's new terminal will have this look when the work is completed.
According to a report on latest air traffic trends issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Mangalore airport has reported the largest growth in south India surpassing metros like Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, and is the third fastest growing tier-II city in India after Agartala (95.2%) and Indore (105.9%).
The average national growth in air traffic movement in the country for February ’08 was 18% over the same period in ‘07.
According to the AAI report card, the increase in the number of low-cost airlines and international airlines is fuelling the growth of air traffic in these secondary cities. Bangalore is no more the gateway city to Mangalore, as now airlines operate direct flights from Mumbai and other metro cities. Recently, lowcost carrier Deccan launched a new flight connecting Mangalore to Kochi. National low-cost carrier Air India Express will also be upping its frequency in and out of Mangalore as it adds more flights to the Gulf region as well as metro cities in India.
“As Bangalore gets more and more saturated, emerging regional hubs like Mangalore are going to benefit. Mangalore has traditionally attracted the student and leisure traffic, but of late it’s attracting a lot of business traffic especially from the IT sector, forcing airlines to increase their services,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO (Indian subcontinent & Middle East), Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
Mangalore saw a 67% growth in domestic air traffic movement in February, in comparison to the national average of 17.4%. At present, the airport handles 42 international arrivals and departures per week and 28 domestic arrivals and departures per day. Incidentally, Bajpe airport is the only airport in the state to operate two runways. The new Bengaluru International Airport will get its second runway only in 2014.
Even on the cargo front Mangalore reported an impressive growth of 39% in the year ended March 30, 2008 over the previous year.

Bajpe airport director M R Vasudeva, said, “More infrastructure facilities had to be added to the arrival terminal due to the increase in operations by domestic and international carriers.”
And this spurt in air traffic has helped the airport record an impressive 950% growth in operating profit for the year ended March 30, 2008. It clocked an operating profit of Rs 9 crore up from Rs 83 lakh reported in the previous fiscal. Total revenue of the airport stood at Rs 19 crore for the year gone by.
And the growth is likely to continue to remain at these starry heights as a new terminal building will be up and running by February 2009.