Patna, Feb 23 (IANS) For the second straight year, Patna airport has emerged No.1 among 46 airports in the country in terms of growth of domestic aircraft movement and number of passengers, says Bihar's economic survey 2011-12.

According to the survey, tabled in the state assembly Wednesday, Patna airport overtook the airports of Port Blir, Varanasi, Vadodra, Raipur, Agratala, Chandigarh and Madurai in terms of total number of passengers for domestic flights in 2010-11.

"The number of domestic passengers jumped from 1.76 lakh in 2004-5 to 8.38 lakh in 2010-11. Till August last year, the movement of approximately 7.7 lakh passengers was recorded" the report said.

In 2009-10, the Patna airport had handled a total of 5,52,440 passengers. It had had registered a growth of 42.2 per cent in terms of passengers' flow in 2009-10, which was also highest in the country.

The report further said that freight movement through Patna airport had increased by 68 percent since 2004-5. In 2004-5, the freight movement was recorded at 1,035 tonnes. It increased to 3,279 tones in 2010-11 and to 5,865 tonnes by August 2011.

"The unprecedented growth in traffic at Patna airport was achieved despite the fact that the Airport Authority of India has declared it dangerous due to its short runway' the report said.

Last year, the Airport Authority of India had said that Patna airport handled 5,52,542 domestic passengers in 2009-10, which was 60.4 per cent more than the corresponding figure of 3,44,446 for 2008-09. Amritsar airport with a domestic passenger growth rate of 51.8 percent during this period stood second followed by Dibrugarh with a corresponding figure of 47.4 percent growth.