7 new routes as KIA begins winter schedule

The Kempegowda International Airport will kick off its five-month winter schedule from Monday with seven new routes, linking Bengaluru to Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Udaipur, Prayagraj, Aizawl, Kolhapur and Phuket. The schedule will be active till March 30, 2019.

Phuket is the new international destination, with GoAir offering a direct connection to the southern Thai province. With this, Bengaluru will now connect to 82 destinations — 53 domestic and 29 international, KIA's operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) said in an official release.

Three airlines — Indigo, Air India and Go Air — will launch additional flights from Bengaluru to eight existing international destinations. IndiGo will operate daily flights to Male, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Kathmandu; Air India will fly to Bangkok and London; GoAir will operate to Male. Air India Express will launch a round-trip flight to Singapore — flying four times a week — from October 29.

The new domestic destinations are Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Udaipur (SpiceJet); Udaipur and Prayagraj (erstwhile Allahabad) (IndiGo); Aizawl via Guwahati (Jet Airways) and Kolhapur (Alliance Air).

The new airlines set to make their Bengaluru debut are Turkish Cargo and Air India Express. Turkish Cargo, one of the fastest growing air freight services, will operate two flights a week, flying between Istanbul and Bengaluru — one via Colombo and the other via Daman 1 from October 31. A total of 13 cargo airlines, including two domestic and 11 international, now operate from KIA.

Runway capacity boost

During the five-month period, the runway capacity will increase to 40 Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) per hour from the existing 38. The daily ATMs will progressively increase to 766 ATMs (675 domestic and 91 international). This will amount to a growth of 17% over the summer of 2018.

Airline market share

The top international airline during this schedule by ATMs will be IndiGo, with 10.4% market share of overseas operations, while Air India is second with 8.3%. IndiGo continues to lead in the domestic market share at 46.2%. Jet Airways, including its subsidiary JetLite, will together constitute 13.3%.