Image: A view of the domestic/international departure hall at Mangaluru International Airport
Mangaluru: Mangaluru International Airport handled a record 1,78,314 passengers in November, the highest in the current financial year. This includes 1,32,762 domestic and 45,552 international passengers. The total passengers handled in November represents 10.3 per cent growth over passengers handled in October 2023. With this, the airport has handled 1286207 passengers in the first eight months of current fiscal as against 11,95,499 passengers in the corresponding period last year.
This promising growth in passenger numbers also coincides with the start of winter schedule that got underway on October 29, 2023. Additional flights on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru, Mangaluru-Chennai and Mangaluru-Mumbai sectors too have aided this rising trend in passenger growth. The steady stream of chartered flights (general aviation) that the airport handles, too has played its part in aiding the passenger growth, the airport spokesperson said.
This upward trend in passenger movement can also be gauged from the fact that the air traffic movements (ATMs) at the airport in November rose to 1298, also the highest in the current fiscal, as against 1,222 ATMs in October 2023. The passenger growth from April to November 2023 has been achieved despite a dip in ATMs vis-à-vis the same period in last FY, where the airport handled 9,797 movements as against 9,273 ATMs in the corresponding period this year.
The average number of passengers that the airport handled from April to November this financial year was 1,60,780 as against 1,49,438 passengers in the corresponding period last year. The airport each day in November handled an average of 5,944 passengers (reaching a peak of 7,468 passengers on 25 Nov) as against 5,215 passengers in October. The airport had handled 1,67,887 passengers in August, the second highest in the current fiscal, the airport spokesperson noted.
