The swanky new terminal of Hubballi Airport has turned 5 years old. Since then the airport has seen many ups and downs, but the growth trajectory has started to go up again.
The new terminal of Hubballi Airport was inaugurated on December 12th, 2017 by then union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju, and MoS Jayant Sinha.
To mark the event, Air India had started the Bengaluru-Hubballi-Mumbai flight with Airbus A319. Hubballi Airport became the first airport in North Karnataka to operate Narrow body jets.
The new terminal of the Hubballi Airport covers an area of 3600 sq.m and is centrally air-conditioned. The terminal can handle 300 peak-hour passengers (150 arrivals and 150 departures).
Udan-2 scheme changed the trajectory of Hubballi Airport. Or in other words, it showed the real potential of Hubballi Airport. IndiGo, Star Air, Spicejet, and Alliance Air operated Udan flights from Hubballi.
Udan-2 helped Hubballi Airport to such an extent that it crossed 50,000 passengers per month 3-4 times. The airport even handled more than 100 tonnes of Cargo per month.
Passenger data year-wise since the inauguration of the new terminal:
- 2017 (September to December): 16,469.
- 2018 (January to December): 3,41,898.
- 2019 (January to December): 5,07,755.
- 2020 (January to December): 1,55,914.
- 2021 (January to December): 2,12,909.
- 2022 (January to October): 2,08,816.
In the year 2013, Government of Karnataka signed an MoU with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to develop a new and bigger terminal at Hubballi Airport.
Karnataka government handed over 588 acres of land to AAI. A new terminal, Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower, Fire station, Car parking, etc were part of the expansion.
Hubballi Airport is likely to continue the upward trajectory of growth as Dharwad MP Pralhad Joshi is in touch with airlines to start direct flights to Ahmedabad and Pune.
Recently, AAICLAS has stopped accepting Cargo from the dedicated Cargo terminal. Pralhad Joshi has taken the matter with the Civil aviation ministry and assured to restart the Cargo terminal at the earliest.