Bengaluru airport clocks 25.04 mn passengers in 2017, plans for 2nd runway

Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), the operator of the city's airport said that it handled over 25.04 million passengers in 2017, nearly a decade ahead of initial passenger traffic estimates when the work on the country's first private Greenfield airport began in 2005.

BIAL, now owned majority by Indian born Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa backed Fairfax, registered a traffic growth of 12.9 per cent over 2016, as airlines, both Indian and global, planned new routes to cities such as Amsterdam and Bahrain to connect Bengaluru. Air Traffic Movements grew by 4.3 per cent to 44 movements an hour this year.