While liberalisation in the aviation sector, private sector airlines began operations in the country in the nineties and Bangalore was a natural hub for the southern region, given its high prominence in the IT and Auto sectors in the country. Infrastructure is being upgraded and expanded across the state to meet the growing demand of air travel. Mangalore and Bangalore are the two international airports in the State. The Bangalore International Airport Limited, the first private airport in the country, has the capacity to handle 3,000 passengers per hour. There are also two domestic airports catering to the northern part of the State at Hubli and Belgaum and the airport at Mysore is in the process of being upgraded, while new airports have been proposed at

Hassan, Shimoga, Bellary, Bijapur and Gulbarga. The government plans to add 12 airstrips in the State, has opened Karwar and Bidar Defence Airports for civil traffic and is in the process of setting up 20 helipads to provide easy access to all districts and give the necessary infrastructure boost to helitourism.

The State Infrastructure Policy aims to provide a fair and transparent policy framework for the facilitation of the process of economic growth and encouragement of PPP in the infrastructure sector in the State. Apart from duty exemptions, assistance in land acquisition etc. for the aviation sector specifically, the government has given a tax concession on aviation fuel, at 4%, for the first three years of operation to district headquarters.

Air traffic was hit by the global slowdown in 2008, though the subsequent year saw a revival in Asia, trends are still not very strong for the Western countries. Bangalore and Mangalore followed these trends in traffic, which have now picked up to pre-crisis levels once again.