There is good news for passengers who regularly use the Kempegowda International Airport. Work on building two rapid exit taxiways, which had shut down the airport partially between February and April, is completed and the taxiways will be commissioned on August 17. This will pave the way for increase in KIA’s capacity to 44 aircraft movements per hour, 10 more than the current capacity of 34.
Rapid exit taxiways allow aircraft to leave the runway at higher speeds. As the aircraft vacate the runway quicker, more flights can be accommodated in a shorter interval of time. This is useful for KIA which is now the country’s third busiest airport. With the upgrade, around 700 flights per day can be handled. Between February and April this year, the runway had to be closed for certain intervals till the time that critical work on the taxiways was completed.
Already work on the second runway is on and according to BIAL, it will be operational by September 2019. In 2016, KIA received 22.18 million passengers, earning it the tag of busiest airport in South India. Around 60,000 passengers used the airport daily in 2016. The maximum flight movement is during the morning and evening peak hours and the runways’ flight handling capacity increase is expected to ease the pressure on the airport. “The work is completed and it will be commissioned on August 17,” confirmed Hari Marar, president, Airport Operations, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL).
