Kempegowda International Airport Limited (KIAL) is going to undo the restrictions it had imposed on flight operations. For about two and a half months from mid-February, the airport was closed to flights during the day due to Aero India 2017 and later for upgradation of its sole runway. Growing traffic at the airport necessitated the expansion. Airport operations president Hari Marar said the runway upgradation, which will increase aircraft handling capacity, was completed on April 30. Travellers and airlines had to reschedule or cancel some of their trips as flights took off before 10.30 am and after 5 pm. “Approximately 80 flights were cancelled per day due to runway closure,” a KIAL official reportedly said. in 2012, the runway was entirely closed for a month for resurfacing work.
The Bengaluru airport clocked 178,117 air traffic movements (ATMs) in the past financial year, which translates to around 500 ATMs a day. Ranked third busiest in India, the KIA registered 22.88 million travellers during this period. This comes to around 62,000 passengers a day.