Incredible India keeps attracting international airlines

(CAPA): Indias airports handled 25.8 million international passengers in the 12 months ended 31-Mar-07, up 15.1%, year-on-year, driven by sustained economic growth and liberalisation of market access.

Mumbai was the busiest airport, handling 7.3 million international passengers (+9.2%), followed by Delhi (6.7 million, +15.4%) and Chennai (2.9 million, +11.1%). But Bangalore led the rapidly expanding secondary cities, surging through the 1 million barrier for the first time with a 46.2% increase in traffic in 2006/07. Hyderabad also reported better than average growth (+21.3%, while Trivandrum (+18.2%), Calicut (+17.1%), Amritsar (+19.3%) and Kochi (+23.7%) are building volumes strongly.

Several of the smaller cities are the targets for future expansion by LCCs including Thailand’s Nok Air and Singapore’s Tiger Airways, which will place India on its network map from Oct-07.

Expanding trade links with GCC countries are seeing a surge in capacity by Etihad Airways, Emirates and Air Arabia, while an expanded bilateral air services agreement this week with Kuwait will open the door for more services by Kuwait Airways and/or LCC Jazeera Airways.

International traffic growth will also be stimulated by Jet Airways and Air India, which are expanding to North America from Aug-07, while the Indian Government is also set to allow private Indian carriers access to international markets on a case-by-case basis from early 2008.

Double-digit growth in international traffic is a virtual certainty for India’s airports for the foreseeable future, although capacity constraints at Mumbai and Delhi will slow their rates - and push traffic to other gate ways. 

Date posted: 04-Jul-07