3 months ago
1
Passenger postulation trends astatine Thiruvananthapuram International Airport person precocious reversed, with planetary travellers present outnumbering home passengers. Over the past mates of years, home postulation had consistently been higher.
The airdrome recorded its highest-ever monthly rider postulation successful January, handling 4,50,090 passengers. Of these, 2.27 lakh were planetary travellers, portion home flyers accounted for astir 2.22 lakh. A akin signifier was observed successful December 2025, erstwhile planetary passengers (2.18 lakh) exceeded home flyers (2 lakh) retired of a full monthly footfall of 4.19 lakh. In November, however, home passengers had inactive outnumbered planetary travellers.
In the pre-COVID-19 period, planetary passengers constituted a larger stock of postulation astatine the airport: retired of each 100 passengers passing done Thiruvananthapuram, 56 were planetary and 44 domestic. This marked a displacement from 2016–17, erstwhile the ratio stood astatine 65:35 successful favour of planetary travellers. According to airdrome authorities, the caller reversal successful inclination is mostly driven by changing transit rider preferences.
For instance, erstwhile home postulation was higher, determination was important question to Mumbai, which had emerged arsenic an affordable transit hub for planetary flyers from Kerala, contempt the availability of nonstop flights to West Asia. Currently, determination has been a comparable summation successful planetary passengers from different cities utilizing Thiruvananthapuram arsenic a transit constituent for overseas destinations.
User improvement interest
Despite the comparatively precocious idiosyncratic improvement interest (UDF) levied astatine the airport, competitory airfares—particularly for transit passengers—offered by airlines person played a important relation successful shaping these fluctuating trends. The airdrome charges a UDF of ₹770 for embarking home passengers and ₹330 for disembarking home passengers. For planetary travellers, the interest is ₹1,540 for embarking and ₹660 for disembarking passengers. According to information presented by the Ministry of Civil Aviation successful Parliament, the airdrome collected a grounds ₹383.26 crore successful UDF successful 2025.
Airport authorities person clarified that, notwithstanding the higher idiosyncratic fee, airlines proceed to connection competitory fares, which remains the cardinal origin successful attracting transit postulation to Thiruvananthapuram. They besides noted that the airdrome concessionaire paid a true-up tariff of ₹902 crore to the Airports Authority of India to compensate for losses incurred during the COVID-19 period. This magnitude is present being recovered done the UDF. Additionally, efforts are nether mode to pull much airlines to motorboat services from Thiruvananthapuram, which is expected to further trim fares.
The airport’s regular mean rider postulation has present surpassed 15,000, marking a important milestone successful its maturation trajectory.
