The Adani Group-led Thiruvananthapuram International Airport has witnessed 83.6 per cent growth in passenger and 31.53 per cent growth in flight movements during last year. An airport company spokesman said here that January this year alone saw more than 3.2 lakh (3,23,792) passengers use the airport compared to 1.7 lakh (1,76,315) during the same month last year (2022).
Average daily passenger traffic in January 2022 was 5,687 that has risen to 10,445 a year later. Similarly, total air traffic movements in January 2022 of 1,671 has increased to 2,198 in January 2023. Currently, the international airport has a weekly frequency of 131 flights in domestic and 120 flights in international sectors.
Connectivity goes up
The connectivity has increased to 12 international destinations including Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Muscat, Bahrain, Dammam, Kuwait, Singapore, Colombo, Male, Hanimadhoo (Maldives) and 10 domestic destinations including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Kochi and Kannur.
According to the spokesman, the international airport has slowly but surely put itself on track back to growth in passenger footfalls that should take it to the pre-pandemic levels ‘sooner than later.’ It had handled 31.11 lakh passengers in the 2022 calendar year compared to 44 lakh passengers in 2017-18.