BIAL sees 13.66% drop in domestic departures

BIA sees drop in domestic departures

ENS

BANGALORE: HERE is some bad news for the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), which wants to have sole rights on Bangalore’s commercial airspace. The BIA has been witnessing a dip in the number of domestic flight operations in its very first month after it started operations on May 24 and this continues.

According to the statistics available with the Express, on the daily domestic flight operations from Bangalore (both HAL and BIA), during May 2008 the number of daily domestic flights departing from the HAL Airport was 161 whereas the BIA has recorded just 139 scheduled departures of domestic flights on July 2.

Out of these scheduled flights, a few were cancelled and some others were clubbed due to poor occupancy. Therefore, the net departure reduced further.

The above Airport Authority of India statistics is in sharp contrast to the predictions made by airport operators Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) before the airport was commissioned.

BIAL had, in March, said that domestic airlines have requested for an average of 20 to 25 per cent increase in slots for summer 2008.

It had also stated that approximately 29 per cent of the domestic flights had been given better flight timings. BIAL officials had also said that many airlines would increase frequency from Bangalore after BIA would start operations, with the total number of flights touching 1595 per week, of which domestic flights comprise 85 per cent.‘’The number of domestic departures on July 2 dropped by 13.66 per cent as compared to that at the HAL Airport,’’ said an official source.

The reasons suggested for a dip in the number of domestic, especially short-haul flights are long travel time from the City to the Airport and hike in air fare and a steep hike in aircraft turbine fuel.

Most of the domestic carriers and many domestic routes like Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Madurai, Goa, Pune, Mumbai and Jaipur are affected.

Source : The New Indian Express