Raviprasad Kamila/The Hindu

• 6.75 lac passengers used the airport last year

Mangalore, Jan 14: Bajpe (Mangalore) Airport of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has received a shot in the arm as the passenger traffic at the airport increased by 2.35 lac in 2007. This was the first time ever that the passenger traffic increased so hugely in one year.

In all, 6.75 lac passengers used this airport between January and December 2007 compared to 4.39 lac passengers in 2006. M R Vasudeva, director of the airport, attributed the growth in traffic to increase in the number of international and domestic flights last year. Of those who travelled through the airport last year, 20 per cent were international passengers, he said.

Of the passenger traffic handled by the airport last year, 5.36 lac were domestic passengers and 1.38 lac international passengers.

According to a study, the number of passengers who arrived at the airport in 2007 was 3.35 lac against 2.13 lac in the previous year. As many as 3.39 lac passengers flew from here in 2007 against 2.26 lakh in 2006. Vasudeva said: “This may be because passengers from West Asia fly directly to Mangalore from places such as Dubai, Abu dhabi, Muscat and Bahrain. While returning, some of them fly through Mumbai. “This is one of the reasons for more number of arrivals,” he said. A study of annual passenger traffic between 1998 and 2007 reveals that the number of passengers arriving at the airport was always more than those flying back from here. For example, in 1998, 1.15 lac passengers arrived and 1.05 lac passengers departed from here. In 2004, 1.36 lac arrived and 1.27 lac departed, and in 2005, 1.43 lac arrived and 1.33 lac departed from the airport.

Morning flight soon

Sources at the airport said that a private operator who had planned to operate a late evening flight between Mangalore and Bangalore had dropped the proposal. Instead, the same operator was planning to introduce an early morning flight between the two cities.