Terminal capacity utilisation of airports in Kerala lowest in country

Even as Kerala is pushing for the fifth international airport at Sabarimala, around 57% of the combined terminal capacity of the four airports in Kerala is remaining unutilised, considering the passenger movement through these airports in the 2023-24 fiscal. The figure is one of the lowest in the country.

According to statistics available with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Kerala’s four international airports — Kannur, Kozhikode, Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram — have a combined terminal capacity to handle 45.1 million passengers a year. However, the passenger footfall in these airports was 19.27 million in 2023-24. This is one of the lowest terminal capacity utilisation at the national level and in southern India as well.

The combined terminal capacity of all airports in the country is 534.57 million people per annum (MPPA), while the capacity utilisation was 376.42 MPPA in the last fiscal, an utilisation of around 70%.

Karnataka leads

Neighbouring States such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Telangana have handled more passengers than Kerala. Karnataka has the highest terminal capacity of 56.81 million in southern India and handled 40.53 million passengers last fiscal, one of the highest in the country.

When it comes to Kerala, the number of passengers handled by the four airports in 2018-19 was 18.14 million, whereas the combined terminal capacity was then 30 million passengers.

In the past four years, Kerala increased the terminal capacity by around 50%. However, the increase in passenger volume was just 1.13 million during the past four years.

In Karnataka, the passenger volume jumped to 40.53 million passengers in 2023-24 from 36.20 million in 2018-19. Telangana has seen an increase of 3.65 million passengers in just four years.

According to experts, Kerala should give priority to feeder airports, connecting the four main international airports. Developing Cochin or Thiruvananthapuram as a hub-and-spoke model airport will allow airlines to start new services from the State to hitherto unconnected destinations all over the globe.