Top metropolitans remain busiest domestic airports in Dec

Indian airports catered to 25.12 million passengers in December, up from 23.23 million passengers in November. 

Earlier, Indian airports recorded 19.64 million passengers in October, up from 15.44 million in September and 14.26 million in August.

However, the growth in air passenger traffic has slowed down since December-end due to the emergence of third wave of covid-19 pandemic, as a result of the rapid spread of omicron variant of the virus. 

During December, international passengers rose to 2.99 million from 2.51 million in the previous month, while domestic passengers during the month stood at 22.13 million, up from 20.72 million in the previous month. 

New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad were the top airports in terms of domestic traffic, while New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai and Hyderabad were the busiest for international traffic during December.

New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport saw more than 4.17 million domestic passengers in December, up from 3.98 million in November.

Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport recorded about 2.54 million passengers during October, up from 2.43 million in November.

Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport registered 2.03 million and 1.45 million domestic passengers, respectively, during December, against 1.89 million and 1.32 million passengers, respectively, in November.

In terms of international passenger traffic, New Delhi recorded 842,582 passengers in December, up from 724,784 passengers in November, while Mumbai reported 451,212 passengers during the month, up from 370,850 passengers during the previous month. 

Kochi and Chennai airports registered 301,338 and 246,387 international passengers, respectively, during December, up from 243,379 and 182,123 passengers during November.
Scheduled international flights, however, remain suspended at least till February-end though all-cargo and flights under bilateral air bubble agreement continue to operate.