Hubballi airport sees better Q1 growth than B’luru, M’luru

Hubballi airport, the third busiest in Karnataka, has recorded highest growth among all airports in the state in terms of domestic aircraft movements and passengers it handled in the first quarter of 2023-24, against the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

In percentage growth of domestic aircraft movements and domestic passengers, Hubballi has overtaken even the Bengaluru airport, though total numbers of domestic aircraft movements and passengers are much lesser than those of Bengaluru and Mangaluru airports.

From April to June, Hubballi airport recorded the movement of 1,638 domestic aircraft and 95,809 domestic passengers, which is 20.6 per cent and 40.9 per cent growth, respectively.

Though the numbers of domestic aircraft movements and passengers in Bengaluru and Mangaluru airports are big, their growth, percentage-wise, is less than that of Hubballi airport.

In the first three months of the current financial year, Bengaluru recorded 15.4 per cent growth in domestic aircraft movements and 35.5 per cent growth in the number of passengers.

The growth figures for Mangaluru airport are - 10.6 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively, as per the data released by Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Compared to the first quarter of the previous year, airports in Belagavi, Mysuru and Kalaburagi saw negative growth in terms of domestic aircraft movements from April to June this year.

Hubballi, with 1,638 domestic aircraft movements (20.6 per cent growth), and Bengaluru with 53,709 domestic aircraft movements (15.4 per cent growth) saw positive growth.

Though the number of domestic passengers in Bengaluru and Mangaluru are more, Hubballi achieved 40.9 per cent growth (95,809 passengers) in the first quarter of 2023-24, against the same period last year.

These figures were 35.5 per cent (84.61 lakh passengers) for Bengaluru airport and 1 per cent (3.23 lakh passengers) for Mangaluru airport.

In terms of domestic freight, Hubballi airport recorded 17 MTs (metric tonnes) and it was 13.3 per cent more than the figures for the first quarter of 2022-23, according to air traffic details released by AAI.

At present, Hubballi airport handles flights to Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune. There is a demand for a flight service between Hubballi and Ahmadabad. The union government has approved the plan for the expansion of the terminal and others works, at a cost of Rs 273 crore.