Mumbai, June 7 (TOI): Air travel usually peaks in May, when domestic aircraft are filled to capacity and airports handle a heavy load of passengers. But this May saw Mumbai airport handle a record total of 3.63 million passengers in 31 days.

In May 2014, the airport saw 2.1 million domestic passengers, but this May, traffic increased by 19% as domestic flights flew 2.56 million passengers.

International passenger traffic saw a comparatively smaller rise of 6.60% in May 2015, going up to one million, against the May 2014 number of 0.9 million. In all, the total number of passengers handled by Mumbai airport this May was 3.63 million, as compared to last May's 3.15 million. The number of arrivals and departures were 25, 474 as against 23,726 in May last year. .

This year, domestic air travel has peaked not just in Mumbai, but across the world.

According to International Air Transport Association's (IATA) global passenger traffic results for April, demand for domestic travel went up by 7.2% globally, when compared to April 2014 and the strongest growth occurred in India and China. "India's domestic demand jumped 20.7% in April compared to a year ago, owing to continued market stimulation by local carriers, as well as the noteworthy improvements in economic growth," said the IATA report.