Adventure junkies are heading to Bengaluru for aero sports

BENGALURU: Flying enthusiast Joy Ghosh, 40, remembers his last month’s microlight flying as one-of-a-kind experience. The Delhi-based businessman made it a point to try the aero sport during his visit to the city. “Microlight flying is only available in Bengaluru as the planes are manufactured here. And anyone who loves aero sports must experience it,” Ghosh adds.

Aero sports in Bengaluru has gained popularity in the past two to three years, owing to such various options as microlight flying, powered hand gliding, parasailing, ballooning and airplane joyrides that are being offered by operators in the city.

According to Sandeep Madhavan, cofounder, Sportobuddy, an online portal and mobile app that integrates sports with technology, “Bengaluru is preferred the most as compared to Kamshet, Sikkim, Sonipat and Uttarakhand in the aero sports as it is the only city in India offering diverse aero sport activities.” The rise in interest is also because of better technology, higher standards of services here, he adds.

Owing to the popularity of aero sports, Bengaluru is also witnessing a lot of tourists who are coming here to experience it. According to Nidhi Vishwakarma, founder, Vikings Aerosports that offers different forms of aero sports, “We also have a lot of enthusiasts who travel from other cities to Bengaluru to partake in aero sport activities here. Their age demographic ranges from 15 to 35 years, with a concentration between 28 and 35 years.”


One has to pay from Rs 600 to Rs 10,000 to experience aero sports like paramotoring, parasailing, ballooning, hand gliding and microlight flying range, depending on the sport and time slots that vary from 10 minutes to 1 hour of flying. Among all these, parasailing is the most popular because of its affordability, recreational nature and that it can be undertaken by anyone without any adventure background or hard training.

The rise of adventure-related apps on the Internet has also piqued people’s interest, according to Vinitha Mariappa, 35, founder member, Bangalore Aerosports that offers training and joyrides on microlight aircraft, powered hand glider for flying enthusiasts and hobby fliers. “Earlier, people would hear of such activities word-of-mouth. But now with rising affordability and disposable income in urban households coupled with internet-based companies and apps offering aero sport experiences, we’ve seen a considerable rise in demand in the past two years,” Mariappa says.