BENGALURU: Bangalore International Airport Ltd, the operator of Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), on Tuesday said the second runway is expected to be operational next year and the new terminal by 2021.
"Work on the second runway and design approvals for Terminal 2 (T2) began in 2017 and construction is scheduled to begin during the middle of 2018. It will be operational by 2019 and T2 by 2021," BIAL officials said.
T2 would be constructed in two phases. In the first phase, the terminal would be able to handle 25 million passengers annually and the capacity would be increased to have 20 million more fliers.
Record traffic
The airport handled a record 26.91 million passengers in 2017-18, an increase of 17.6 per cent compared with the year-ago period and 22.88 million in 2016-17.
Last financial year, the number of air traffic movements grew 10.8 per cent to 1,97,330 while the cargo handled increased 9.1 per cent to 3,48,403 metric tonnes.
The airport witnessed the highest ever passenger movement on February 19, 2018 (91,339).
It also showed a strong on time performance, a key performance indicator, achieving 84 per cent as against last year’s 82 per cent.
Forty four airlines connected Bengaluru with 67 destinations (46 domestic and 21 international), during this period.
March was the busiest month of the year, with KIA handling 2,549,523 passengers, and 31,996 MT of airfreight throughput.
“For KIA 2017-18 was a significant year as we saw robust growth in both passenger traffic and cargo throughput. This is truly a reflection of the status of Bengaluru as one of the fastest growing cities in India,” said Hari Marar, Managing Director & CEO, BIAL.
