Saturday, December 29, 2007 Source: Hindu Business Line

Bangalore’s HAL Airport, slated to become the busiest gateway to South India, recorded domestic passenger traffic figures of 4.9 million during April-October 2007, showing a growth of 35.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

Chennai recorded domestic passenger traffic of 4.2 million during the period, while Hyderabad was about 3.2 million.

During the same period last year, the domestic passenger traffic figures at Bangalore airport stood at 3.6 million, according to statistics available with the Aviation Centre of Excellence (ACEXC), Mumbai.

Mr Narinder Kaushal, Airport Director, Airports Authority of India, Bangalore Airport, said that though Chennai recorded a higher growth in the number of passengers during the year, Bangalore still sees the highest passenger traffic after Delhi and Mumbai and is currently handling traffic of 10.3 million passengers.

“The airport records 310 aircraft movements per day and we are trying to restrict new movements into the airport now,” he said. In 2006-07, HAL Airport recorded passenger traffic movement of 8.2 million.

ACEXC figures show that international passenger traffic at the airport grew by 34.3 per cent during April-October 2007 (from 6.6 lakh passengers to 8.9 lakh passengers).