43.82 million passengers in calendar 2025, international traffic up 28.7%, transfer share at 15.7% and rising over 50% internationally — Kempegowda is quietly becoming India’s southern transfer machine.
Kempegowda International Airport closed calendar 2025 with 43.82 million passengers, up 8% on 2024, and set its all-time single-day record — 137,317 — on 23 November 2025. Fiscal 2025-26 delivered 44.47 million, a further 6.2%.
The driver is international: 7.23 million international passengers in FY26, up 23.9%, with average daily international departures rising from 38 to 51. New 2025 routes included Dammam, Ho Chi Minh City, Krabi, Hanoi and Riyadh; Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur lead the network across 113 destinations.
Transfer traffic grew ~22% year on year to 15.7% of total — and international-to-international transfers are expanding at over 50%. The airport’s “Connections by BLR” product is built to convert Bengaluru’s geography — midway between Southeast Asia, the Gulf and Europe — into hub economics.
BIAL’s approved master plan commits $2 billion over five years: Terminal 1 refurbishment, Terminal 2 Phase 2 adding 20 million annual capacity, land reserved for Terminal 3, and an automated people mover — a design path past 100 million passengers and 1.5 million tonnes of cargo.
BLR ended 2025 as India’s #2 airport by domestic flights and the country’s leading perishables gateway for the fifth straight year.
Delhi and Mumbai fight for size; Bengaluru is building a different asset — transfer share. When international connections grow at fifty percent a year, an airport stops being a destination’s front door and becomes a region’s junction box. The $2 billion master plan is priced on exactly that transition.
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