Premium| Listen to this article |
NEW DELHI : Airline passenger traffic in India continued to grow in December, with the airports at the top metropolitan cities remaining the busiest, according to the latest data from the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Indian airports catered to 25.12 million passengers in the month, compared to 23.23 million passengers in November. There were 19.64 million passengers in October, compared with 15.44 million in September and 14.26 million in August.
However, the growth in air passenger traffic has seen a slowdown since December-end because of the third wave of the covid-19 pandemic, with the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus. The country recorded 22.13 million domestic passengers in December, up from 20.72 million in November, while international passengers rose from 2.51 million to 2.99 million in the same period.
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.
In December, New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport hosted more than 4.17 million domestic passengers, up from 3.98 million in November.
Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport recorded about 2.54 million passengers in December, compared with 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.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!