After a spurt in growth rate of passenger traffic last year, in the immediate wake of economic recovery, the Airports Authority of India expects growth rate to quieten this year at the Chennai Airport.

Passenger traffic at the Chennai airport rose by 14 per cent to 12.05 million in FY10-11 (from 10.53 million in FY09-10). However, this high growth rate cannot be sustained, says the airport authority. In 2011-12, it expects a 9 per cent growth to 13.1 million or 1.31 crore (0.45 crore travelling on the international routes and domestic traffic of 0.86 crore).

“The high growth rate during FY11 was due to the high bubbles after recovery from global recession and this is expected to settle down during the current financial year. Also with such growth during 2010-11, base traffic had increased substantially. To maintain high growth requires additional flow of traffic. Moreover, such high growth rate may not sustain all the time. Therefore, the forecasted growth is a normal growth and cannot be considered as muted,” said Mr E.P. Hareendranathan, Airport Director – Chennai, Airports Authority of India.

Mr Hareendranathan attributes the growth story last year mainly to the flurry of industries that invested in Chennai and buoyancy in medical tourism. The airport authority expects the Chennai airport to clock revenues of Rs 668 crore in 2011-12 (Rs 644 crore).

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