Cochin international airport retains spot as third-busiest airport

KOCHI: Amid the rising number of Covid cases in Kerala, the Cochin International Airport Limited (Cial) has retained its position as the third busiest airport in India in 2021 in the international sector. As per the latest statistics released by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) on international travel, Cial secured third position in December, similar to previous months in the year.
As per the report, Cial registered 3,01,338 international passengers during December 2021. While Delhi airport continued to top the list with 8,42,582 passengers, Mumbai airport retained its second spot with 4,51,212 passengers in the said period. Cial is followed by Chennai airport, which handled 2,46,387 international passengers.
Meanwhile, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode airports too secured a place in the top 10 list. While Kozhikode secured sixth position with 1,74,425 passengers, Thiruvananthapuram secured eighth position with 1,32,165 passengers.
Cial’s passenger volume has almost increased by a million in 2021 compared to 2020. The airport handled 43,06,661 passengers in 2021, and 18,69,690 among them were international passengers.
Cial managing director S Suhas said that the traffic growth was a result of the proactive measures taken by the management to attract more airlines in the international sector despite challenges posed by the pandemic. He said the airport managed to re-establish air connectivity to Kochi from all international travel hubs in 2021. “Despite the spike in Covid cases, Cial has successfully managed to facilitate smooth traffic. A slew of measures were implemented to instil confidence in passengers and other stakeholders. 2021 witnessed the resumption of direct services to the UK by Air India. Singapore Airlines started operation in December 2021, and we hope that we can host services in the Kochi-Bangkok sector soon,” Suhas said.
As per the report, airports in India altogether registered a total of 25.12 million passengers in December 2021, compared to 23.23 million passengers in November 2021 in both sectors. While there were 22.13 million domestic passengers in December, up from 20.72 million in November, the number of international passengers rose from 2.51 million to 2.99 million in the same period. There were 19.64 million passengers in October, compared to 15.44 million in September, and 14.26 million in August 2021 in both sectors.
However, growth in air passenger traffic has seen a decline since December-end due to the surge in Covid cases, with rapid spread of Omicron.