February Air Traffic Up 16%

There has been a 16 per cent increase in air passenger traffic in February 2003 over the same period last year. According to the Airports Authority of India, airports across the country handled 3.77 million international and domestic passengers in February this year.

However, February witnessed a 8.8 per cent drop in overall passenger traffic over the previous month, with international passenger traffic dropping 10.2 per cent and domestic traffic down 8.01 per cent.

Airports across the country handled 1.32 million international passengers in February this year, up 17.4 per cent from the corresponding period last year. Domestic passenger traffic surged 15.2 per cent to 2.45 million in February over the same period last year.

For the April 2002-February 2003 period, airports handled a cumulative traffic of 51 million passengers, up 10.8 per cent over April 2001-February 2002.

In February 2003, airports handled 80,030 tonnes of cargo, a 13.8 per cent increase over February 2002. While domestic cargo traffic increased 12.7 per cent over the same period in 2002, international cargo traffic witnessed a 14.4 per cent jump.

Of the total cargo traffic in February, international cargo accounted for 53,250 tonnes. Cargo traffic in February increased 2.8 per cent over the previous month.

Total aircraft movements in February 2003 was 46,710, a 9.5 per cent jump over February 2002. Domestic aircraft movements stood at 36,540, up 7.4 per cent over the same period last year.

International aircraft movements stood at 10,170, an increase of 17.5 per cent.