Despite economic uncertainties and soaring airfares, people seem to be flying to reconnect, explore and do business and work at various destinations.
The passenger footfall in the first six months of this financial year in the four international airports in Kerala indicate that air passenger traffic is likely to surpass the pre-pandemic level this fiscal. In the first six months of this fiscal, the domestic and international passengers from the State totalled 94.42 lakh, which comes to 57.7% of the total passenger traffic in the previous fiscal, according to statistics available with the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
Not only Kerala, but the neighbouring States of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu too witnessed a recovery in air traffic, with the first half of the fiscal witnessing a passenger footfall of 57.2% and 56.8% respectively, compared to the total passenger footfall the previous fiscal. During the pre-pandemic period, Kerala had handled a total of around 1.8 crore passengers a year with Cochin International Airport handling a record 1.02 crore passengers in 2017-18, the highest by an airport in the State.
Though Kerala has a slight edge in the growth rate of total passengers, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are way ahead of the State in terms of the total number of passengers who travelled through the airports in those States, especially the domestic passengers. However, the highest international passenger movement is through Kerala with 50.28 lakh international passengers travelling through the four international airports in the State in the first six months of the fiscal, followed by Tamil Nadu with 36.53 lakh and Karnataka with 23.56 lakh passengers.
The burgeoning non-resident Keralite (NRK) population is pushing the international traffic figures from Kerala. There has also been an upward growth in domestic passenger traffic to and from the State, though the number is yet to surpass the international passenger volume. In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, domestic passengers outnumber international passengers.
With demand for air travel increasing, the numbers are expected to cross the pre-pandemic levels by the end of this fiscal, according to airline sources.
