India’s airport passenger traffic gaining altitude

Airport passenger traffic in India saw steady increase in the festive months of October to December 2022, as compared with the corresponding months of 2021. While October 2022 saw the total passenger traffic reach 27.45 million (19.6 million in October 2021), it went up marginally to 28.28 million in November 2022 (23.23 million in November 2021), and 30.91 million in December 2022 (25.11 million in December 2021). The data, sourced from Airport Authority of India (AAI) website, shows a nearly doubling of international air passenger volume, although the base is considerably smaller than those of domestic passenger volume.

In the period April-December 2022, the total air passenger volume (domestic and international passenger volume combined) was 236.71 million, that was 79.85% higher than 131.61 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2021. The lower numbers for 2021 were mainly due to the Covid19 restrictions on air passenger movement.

With air passenger volume maintaining steady growth in Q4, FY2023 will see the total passenger volume getting closer to the high levels recorded in FY2019 (344.7 million) and FY2020 (341.05 million) as per data sourced from Statista.

Number of passengers handled at airports in India (FY2014-22)

Domestic & International

Source: Statista

The increase in air passenger volume, month on month, augurs well for the airport advertising business that acts as the veritable growth engine for Indian OOH. Meanwhile, various Tier 11 airports had also come up for advertising bids, with OOH media owing firms showing considerable interest in acquiring the rights