Kochi, Jan 30 (PTI) Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has retained its position as the third busiest airport in India throughout 2021 despite the pandemic.

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CIAL said as per the latest statistics released by Airports Authority of India (AAI), it stands at third position in the country in terms of international traffic in December, a feat it has been enjoying since the beginning of the previous year.

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"As per the AAI data on international traffic for the month of December 2021, Delhi Airport topped the list with 8,42,582 passengers and Mumbai airport retained its second spot with 4,51,212. CIAL registered 301,338 international passengers, during December 2021 whereas Chennai Airport which is at the fourth position handled 2,46,387 international passengers," CIAL said in a release.

CIAL handled a total of 43,06,661 passengers during the whole year of 2021. Of that, 18,69,690 were international passengers. CIAL's passenger volume has almost increased by a million in 2021 when compared to that of 2020, it said.

CIAL Managing Director S Suhas attributed the traffic growth to the proactive measures taken by the management to attract more airlines.

"Despite the spike in COVID cases, CIAL has successfully managed to facilitate smooth traffic. A slew of measures was implemented to instill confidence in both passengers and other stakeholders. The year 2021 witnessed the resumption of direct services to the UK by Air India," Suhas said.

Singapore Airlines started operations in December 2021 and we hope that we can host services in Kochi-Bangkok sector soon, he added.

"The Indian airports overall catered to a total of 25.12 million passengers in December 2021, compared to 23.23 million passengers in November. There were 19.64 million passengers in October, compared to 15.44 million in September and 14.26 million in August 2021," the release said.

However, the growth in air passenger traffic has seen a slowdown since December-end because of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the rapid spread of Omicron variant of coronavirus, it said.

The country recorded 22.13 million domestic passengers in December, up from 20.72 million in November, while international passengers rose from 2.51 million to 2.99 million in the same period.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)