Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) handled 174 evacuation flights and 186 ‘Vande Bharat Mission flights’ between April and July. During the period, 38,896 international passengers (14,857 passengers from India to various destinations abroad and 24,039 arrivals to India) transited the airport.
A release states that the highest number of evacuation flights (87) were operated in July. Flights were also operated to 11 new cities, including Auckland, Baku (Azerbaijan), Baghdad, Cairo, Incheon, Rome and Stockholm.
The airport handled 71,406 metric tonnes (MT) of cargo, including 6,194 MT of perishables and 2,300 MT of pharmaceutical supplies during this period.
“Several airlines commenced ‘cargo-only’ flights using passenger aircraft to bolster depressed global airfreight capacity and drive a spike in cargo demand. About 40% percent of BLR airport’s cargo during the period was transported by passenger flights ferrying cargo,” states the release.
The airport also handled ‘Live Human Organs’ shipment during the COVID-19 lockdown. The release states that Lufthansa Cargo carried the shipment, which included human blood stem cells and bone marrow to Bengaluru from Frankfurt in Germany on May 1, and a similar package was exported back to the same destination on May 16.
