Chennai Airport ranked among global top 10 fastest growing airports when it comes to cargo being handled

C Shivakumar @ Chennai:

Chennai airport is ranked among the global top 10 fastest growing airports when it comes to cargo being handled, according to The International Air Transport Association (IATA) report.

IATA report stated that Chennai recorded a strong growth of 17.2pc along with Mumbai airport (18.1pc) to figure in the list along with Kuwait, Moscow, Cincinnati in United states, Hangzhou in China, Muscat in Oman, Campinas in Brazil, Johannesburg and Nairobi in Kenya.

The total cargo tonnage flown from India crossed the one million tonne threshold in 2017, with a strong, double-digit growth rate of 16.9 pc.  In terms of global rankings, Dehli and Mumbai appear in the list of the top 50 airports for freight handled, ranked at 29 and 31, respectively.

Meanwhile, Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Chennai figure among the top 10 largest city-pair routes within India. While domestically Delhi-Chennai route is ranked 7th handling 18.36 lakh passengers in 2017 (a drop of -5.4pc from last year), the stretch is globally ranked 80th. Similarly, Mumbai-Chennai route is ranked 9th domestically with a groth of 5.1pc this year and figures 91 worldwide. Mumbai-Delhi air stretch with 55.66 lakh is ranked the number in domestic route and worldwide, it is ranked 7th.

In a similar way, of the top 10 growth airports in terms of passengers handled in 2017, two are located in India, namely Delhi and Bangalore. In terms of global rankings, Delhi is ranked 16 globally in terms of passengers handled and Mumbai is ranked 29.

The report also stated that in 2017, more than 158 million passengers flew on routes to, from and within India which represents an increase of almost 15% over 2016 and is the third consecutive year of growth in the order of 15-20% per year. The domestic share of total traffic has been generally increasing gradually over the past decade. From 54.5% in 2007, and notwithstanding some bumps along the way, the domestic share has gradually risen to the 61.7% level of 2017.

Over the year to June 2018, the India domestic market has grown by a very strong 17.6%, well above the industry-wide (domestic markets) pace of 7.9%. In 2017, there were a total of 97.7 million domestic passenger journeys, up almost

15 million from 83 million in 2016.

The composition of the current in-service fleet is heavily tilted towards narrowbody aircraft. Narrowbodies account for 3/4th of the total current fleet, with widebodies contributing a further 10%. The remainder consists primarily of turboprops and regional jet aircraft 

 

Factfile:

1. India ranks relatively low (133rd) in terms of airport density (the number of airports per million of population). 

2. India ranks 108th for the number of departures per 1000 population. 

3. Around 55% of all seats in the market are offered by low cost carriers. 

4. On the domestic market alone, the LCC share of total seats is almost 70%.

5. The share of LCC seats offered on India’s international routes is much smaller, at just under 25%, this share has risen from essentially zero in 2004.

6.Amongst Indian airlines, there are currently around 600 aircraft in service

7. The air transport market in India employs more than 390,000 people and supports another 570,000 more in the supply chain. Overall the industry contributes some US$30 billion annually to India’s GDP