Chennai airport becomes fifth busiest in country

• After nearly two years of COVID-19 lull, the increased international air traffic has helped Chennai airport climb one rank up to become the fifth busiest airport in the country after Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

Changes in Rankings

• February 2014: Chennai airport held onto being the third busiest in the country and post March, Bengaluru airport overtook and continues to retain that position.
• Hyderabad and Kolkata airports too recorded sharp growth, relegating Chennai to the sixth spot.
• If one looks at the international passenger traffic data for July
• Chennai airport stood third behind Delhi and Mumbai;
• It overtook Bengaluru and Hyderabad, recording 4.29 lakh passengers.
• But Chennai lags behind other metro cities in terms of domestic passenger traffic.
• In July, the Chennai airport had only 10.2 lakh domestic air passengers, far behind Delhi (36.5 lakh passengers), Mumbai (21.5 lakh passengers), Bengaluru (19.1 lakh passengers), Hyderabad (13.1 lakh passengers) and Kolkata (11.99 lakh passengers).