KOCHI: Cochin International Airport (CIAL) is soaring, again. The airport is all set to handle over 10 million passengers this calendar year. It first reached the milestone in the financial year 2018-19. “We are just 5.54 lakh short of 10 million. We expect to cross the figure in the next 15 days,” said a company spokesperson.
According to data, the airport handled around 94,66,698 lakh passengers and 62,781 aircraft movements in the first 11 months of 2023. “In the 2018-19 financial year, the total number of passengers handled at all four airports in the state was around 1.64 crore, of which 1.01 crore, ie, 64%, was handled by Kochi airport.
This year, we expect that Kochi airport will handle around 68% of the total air travellers in the state and around 75,000 aircraft movement,” said the spokesperson.
As per the passenger movement data of Kochi airport, the lowest number of international passenger movements this calendar year was reported in February — 3,36,959, and the highest in August — 4,44,594. Similarly, the lowest number of domestic passenger movements was in February — 4,34,671 and the highest in May --4,98,761.
Among the major airports in the country, Delhi handled 65.3 million passengers in 2022-23. Mumbai handled 44 million passengers over the same period, while the figures were 31.9 million, 18 million and 10.5 million for Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai, respectively.
CIAL passenger movement data also shows a noticeable trend: There is an unusual surge in passenger movement in the domestic sector compared to international. “Usually, passenger movement in the international sector outweighs movement in the domestic sector. However, this calendar year, the total passenger movement in domestic and international till November is 50,96,121 and 43,70,577, respectively,” said the official.