Hyderabad airport has been on a roll in the last few years even as its larger cousin Bengaluru kept getting all the attention. Hyderabad became the fourth airport in India to cross the 25 million threshold last year. Both airports have expanded rapidly, attracting more airlines, adding more destinations and expanding their infrastructure. While Bengaluru built a new terminal, Hyderabad expanded its terminal and apron leading to increased passenger handling, amongst other things.
On the other side of 25 million, powered by additional terminal capacity, the airport is making full use of the runway capacity it always had to grow and in the process adding domestic destinations. However, it is maturing on the international side which is making the mark.
Data sourced from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article shows that the airport has added seven domestic and eight international destinations when comparing September 2025 with last year’s September. It also attracted five new international airlines. Even as its domestic seats and departures remain flat, on the international side the airport is seeing a 11% growth in departures per week and a 14% growth in seats on offer.
Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Addis Ababa and more
Dutch carrier KLM will launch flights to Hyderabad this September with thrice a week service to Amsterdam. Hyderabad will be the fourthIndian city served by KLM, which operates to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Hyderabad has also seen the return of Cathay Pacific, a route which was once operated by subsidiary Dragon Air which merged with Cathay Pacific. The route which started with thrice a week operation is scaling up to five times a week. The airport also got a direct flight to Africa when Ethiopian started flights to Hyderabad.
The other additions have been to Dhaka, Bangkok – Don Mueang, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Phuket and Medina, some of these being resumes and not a fresh start. These additions have meant that there are more airlines flying into Hyderabad with the new ones being KLM (Starts September), Cathay Pacific, Ethiopian, Thai AirAsia, VietJet and Vietnam Airlines.
On the domestic side, the airport saw addition of Agra, Ayodhya, Cuddapah (reinstated), Rajkot, Agartala, Prayagraj, Jharsuguda, Kanpur, Durgapur as additions while Vidyanagar (Alliance Air) and Jamnagar (Star Air) fell of its connectivity map.
Dominated by IndiGo
Hyderabad airport remains dominated by IndiGo with 63% of all departures and 64% of all seats at the airport being offered by IndiGo. Air India Express comes in next as it has grown significantly at Hyderabad, followed by Air India. The other domestic carriers, SpiceJet and Akasa Air are yet to latch on to Hyderabad with the fourth and fifth largest carriers (by weekly seats on offer) at Hyderabad being Emirates and Etihad respectively.
The airport, though, will always remain in the shadow of Bengaluru which has emerged as the undisputed southern leader in airports. Fuelled by ability to pay and a culture to travel to leisure destinations frequently, the city has attracted more connections over the same period. India has not had a population census for a while, but estimates suggest Bengaluru metropolitan area to have 1.14 crore people while Hyderabad to have a little under 1 crore people, indicating a fairly similar number for both. Chennai is estimated to have a slightly higher population.
The southern triangle – Bengaluru a clear winner?
Bengaluru airport is indeed far for Hyderabad to surpass. In terms of passengers as well as capacity. On the international side, Bengaluru leads followed by Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi in terms of seats on offer. For weekly departures, Bengaluru and Chennai are neck to neck followed by Kochi and Hyderabad. Hyderabad has higher seats but lower departures because of more widebody operations than Kochi and the neck to neck departures for Bengaluru and Chennai is because of the same reason.
On the domestic side, Hyderabad is the undisputed number two with Chennai not being in a position to catch up. At the same time, Bengaluru is chasing down Mumbai and Hyderabad cannot inch up towards taking on Bengaluru in the race.
Network Thoughts
Traditionally Hyderabad has been called out as a low yield destination as compared to other major cities in the south with a lot of traffic going to the middle east over leisure destinations. Yet Hyderabad has time and again shown numbers which potentially merit a thrice a week non-stop to the United States. A lot will change if the Russia – Ukraine conflict is settled over the next few weeks, American carriers could have access to Russian airspace and this could become an entirely different game. As the international and domestic standing remains same for Hyderabad for a long time (or possibly permanant) now, the win for the airport will be a non-stop the the United States.
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