The aviation industry seems to have shaken off the 9/11 effect. According to the Airports Authority of India data, there was a 29.4 per cent increase in passenger traffic in October 2002 compared to October 2001. The aircraft movement also increased by 13.7 per cent for the same period.
Domestic airlines have a lot to cheer about because the number of domestic passengers registered a 31.9 per cent increase over October 2001.
The total domestic traffic across the country for October 2002 was 2.532 million. The number of international passengers for the month stood at 1.152 million registering an increase of 24.4 per cent.
The cumulative figures for the April-October showed that passenger traffic had gone up by 5.9 per cent.
While international passenger traffic had increased by 5.1 per cent, domestic passenger traffic gone up by 6.4 per cent.
Compared to the domestic passenger traffic at airports in September, October saw an increase of 17 per cent.
There had been only a nominal increase of 32,000 international passengers.
There had been a 14.9 per cent increase in domestic aircraft movement at airports this October compared to last year. Airports registered 3,678,000 domestic and 950,000 international aircraft movements this October.
As has been the trend throughout 2002, cargo traffic in October registered a 22.2 per cent increase over last October. The airports handled 3,020,000 tonnes of domestic cargo in October 2002, a 23.7 per cent increase over last year.
There had been a 21.3 per cent increase in international cargo traffic handled over last October. During April-October, there had been a 9.2 per cent increase in aircraft movements compared to the previous year.
There had been a 17.5 per cent increase in cargo traffic handled at airports during the period compared to last year.