Rise in air traffic

New Delhi: The air traffic in terms of aircraft movement and passenger traffic have increased during the last three years, registering a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.3% and 5.6% respectively. However, freight traffic has witnessed negative growth and declined by 1.0% from 2010-11 to 2013-14. In the current year (April 2014-January2015), aircraft movements, passengers and freight traffic has increased by 4.5%, 11.8% and 11.7% respectively in comparison to the traffic handled during April 2013- January 2014.

The rise in air passenger and air cargo traffic is an assorted result of various factors including economic environment, commercial factors, increased traffic demand and load handling capacity of airports and airlines. All the airports in the country have sufficient capacity to cater to the increasing air passenger and air cargo traffic. The Indian airports have a combined capacity to cater to 220.04 million passengers and 4.63 million MT cargo per annum and handled 168.92 million passengers and 2.28 million MT cargo in 2013-14. The Chennai airport has the capacity to cater to 23.00 million passengers and 1.10 million MT cargo per annum and handled 12.90 million passengers and 0.22 million MT cargo in 2013-14.

This information was given by Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.