Mumbai airport is the only airport amongst the top 10 international airports in the country to surpass the 2019 levels of footfall for international travellers. 2019 was the last full year for international operations, even though it was marred by the fall of Jet Airways – which had significant international presence. In 2020, international as well as domestic flights stopped operations as the country went into a lockdown. Initially the government allowed an air bubble arrangement which went on until March 2022. Thus 2023 was the first full year of international operations after 2019, without any restrictions.
International footfalls include both arrivals and departures, across both Indian and foreign carriers. While some of the carriers like Emirates started operations to India immediately after the opening up of international traffic, other carriers have been slow to respond. Indian carriers on the other hand have been growing starting with the second half of 2023, the impact of which will be seen in the current year.
How have the top 10 international airports performed?
While Mumbai saw 4% more footfalls than 2019, it continued to remain at number two with Delhi being the undisputed leader. Delhi saw a 1% drop in footfalls. Chennai, Kochi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad maintained their third, fourth, fifth and sixth position respectively. The airports saw a drop of 6%, 3%, 8% and 1% respectively.
Calicut Airport gained one position and ended 2023 with seventh most busiest international airport, even as it saw a drop of 10% over 2019. Kolkata saw a steep drop of 22% and lost a position to Calicut. Trivandrum and Ahmedabad swapped positions with Trivandram gaining and becoming the ninth most busiest by international footfalls, though it had a drop of 16% over 2019. Ahmedabad occupied the tenth spot with a drop of 22%. Both these airports are operated by Adani group.
| Sr. No | City | International Footfall | Rank compared to 2019 |
| 1 | DELHI | 1,84,75,656 | – |
| 2 | MUMBAI | 1,38,22,773 | – |
| 3 | CHENNAI | 56,92,629 | – |
| 4 | KOCHI | 47,86,517 | – |
| 5 | BANGALORE | 44,98,283 | – |
| 6 | HYDERABAD | 40,54,915 | – |
| 7 | CALICUT | 25,40,400 | +1 |
| 8 | KOLKATA | 23,95,229 | -1 |
| 9 | TRIVANDRUM | 19,75,502 | +1 |
| 10 | AHMEDABAD | 18,73,461 | -1 |
Source: AAI data
Top Gainers
The highest growth was recorded at Vijayawada where the footfalls grew 4 times, from 9,224 international passengers to 37,397 international passengers. Indore saw twice as many international footfalls in 2023 as compared to 2019. Aurangabad and Surat were next at 1.7 times and 1.6 times respectively. All these airports have had a low base in 2019 with a per day international footfalls averaging less than 500. For benchmark, Delhi had daily international footfalls exceeding 50,000 passengers. Delhi is the largest international airport in the country.
Lucknow (17%), Amritsar (7%), Kannur (17%) were amongst the other gainers. Overall, the international footfalls were lower in 2023 than 2019, even as the domestic traffic has more than recovered from the pre-pandemic lows.
Top Losers
The airports at Vizag and Varanasi have seen their international footfalls cut by half in 2023 as compared to 2019. Both airports have seen a considerable drop in international flights as airlines struggled to get all their fleet back in the air, largely due to supply chain issues and this saw airlines prioritising larger metros over smaller cities.
Guwahati, Goa and Gaya saw a drop of 44%, 39% and 33% respectively. In the case of Goa, the opening of a new airport at Mopa in North Goa will have a wider impact starting this year.
There were 33 international airports which reported international traffic in both 2019 and 2023. Out of these, 23 saw a decline in traffic while only 10 saw an increase in traffic.
Tail Note
The government is adding airports at breakneck speed. Airlines are being encouraged to add flights to international destinations from beyond the metro’s. Surat is seeing a second wave of connectivity with both Air India Express and IndiGo starting flights to Dubai, from Surat. Simultaneously, the Malaysian carriers – Malaysia Airlines, Air Asia and Batik Air are expanding beyond metros to places like Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Trivandrum and Vizag. All of which will add up to more international footfalls for tier II cities.
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