Cargo traffic at Bangalore International Airport rises 139% in H1 FY21

The cargo traffic at Bangalore International Airport increased by 139 per cent in the first half of this fiscal, driven by international freight, private aerodrome operator BIAL said on Wednesday.

The airport has also re-established traffic on 51 domestic destinations, achieving 88 per cent connectivity of the pre-COVID levels, it added.

Before the pandemic, around 60 per cent of domestic and international freight was being carried in the belly space of passenger aircraft and the remainder in freighters.

With the reduction in passenger flights due to the restrictions, several airlines both domestic and international converted passenger to cargo (P2C) aircraft, enabling the availability of a larger amount of cargo capacity, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) said in a release.

As a result, the Bangalore airport saw the growth of cargo aircraft movements by 139 per cent in the first two quarters of FY21, BIAL said.

During the first half of the current fiscal, Bangalore Airport cargo terminal handled 1,31,603 MT of freight, with September cargo volume seeing a marginal growth to 32,449 MT compared to the same period last year, it added.

During the previous month, the international cargo grew 4.5 per cent, it said, adding that domestic cargo is showing a slower recovery at -5.2 per cent, lower than the same period last year.

Perishable cargo has been one of the major growth drivers, with the airport having processed 17,212 MT during this period, it noted.

Improved connectivity and increase in the Passenger to Cargo (P2C) aircraft, combined with a host of measures taken by BIAL to enable seamless processing has pushed cargo volumes into positive territory, making it the first metro airport in the country to record year-on-year growth in freight during September, the release said.

It also said that with the gradual easing of restrictions, air traffic movements have witnessed an encouraging trend, recovering to 53 per cent of the previous year's flight movements, following successive measures to unlock the domestic economy.