Bengaluru: Traffic at Kempegowda International Airport dipped by 46% last month

BENGALURU: Air traffic movement (ATM) at Kempegowda International Airport dipped by 46% in May due to the second Covid wave.
Airport Authority of India (AAI) reports show that the decline was more pronounced here than at Delhi and Mumbai, possibly due to the lockdown. According to AAI, air traffic saw a dip of 29% in Delhi, 30.9% in Mumbai and 46.1% in Bengaluru on May 31, 2021 as compared to the ATM on May 1.
While May 1 saw 310 flights operated at KIA, it was the lowest on May 24 at 142 flights.
ATM includes passenger and combination of flights including cargo, international, domestic, air taxi and commercial business flights at six major airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai.
Experts said the big decline in Bengaluru is mainly due to the lockdown from April 27 and passenger numbers dipping and flights being cancelled. “While the number of passengers flying out of Bengaluru was moderate, arrivals were few. For example, a 200-plus ca-pacity flight from Singapore landed recently in KIA with just three passengers,” said a senior KIA official.
The report also says ATM at six airports saw a 68% dip in comparison to the total ATMs in May 2019. This May saw 6,340 ATMs compared to 19,642 in May 2019, while 2020 saw operations restarting only by May-end and recorded 1,567 flights. ATM in Bengaluru was down by 70% in May when compared to pre-pandemic period of January 2020.