City sees dip in int’l air traffic

Commerical Establishments Inside Terminals To Close Down
V Ayyappan | TNN
June 6, 2009

Chennai: Summer holidays and reduced fares have failed to boost international air passenger traffic in Chennai. In April, it dipped by 4% compared to the corresponding period last year. Airport officials have reasons to fear that the numbers might go down further in the coming months.
Domestic passenger traffic in Chennai decreased by 15% while the number of departing passengers alone dipped by 18% in April 2009, compared to the period last year. Consequently, several commercial establishments have notified that they would be closing down their shops in the international and domestic terminals.
International passenger departures dipped by 8% while domestic passenger departures came down by 18% in April. “Departing passengers bring business for shops inside the airport. As footfalls dropped, many of the licensees have intimated that they will be withdrawing from the airport,” said an airport official.
The shops that will be closing down include a handicraft store, jewellery and a recentlyopened lounge. “May is going to be worse. Airlines were hoping that holidays will draw passengers, but that has not happened. The H1N1 flu threat seems to have added to the woes,” the official said. Airlines are also not starting new services or increasing frequencies of existing services.
International passenger traffic has been showing a decline month-on-month since December 2008, but it registered an overall increase of 7% last year. However, international aircraft movement has increased by 8%. Industry experts say that a combination of factors including promotion by foreign tourism boards and cheaper international airfares helped boost international passenger traffic then.
“A couple of airlines started services to new sectors, like Kingfisher Airlines to Colombo, while others increased their frequencies on high-yield routes when routes were rationalised following recession,” an AAI official said. Chennai airport saw a 7% increase in international passenger traffic from 34.1 lakh passengers in 2007-08 to 36.63 lakh in 2008-09 even as domestic passenger traffic declined 15% from 72.47 lakh in 2007-08 to 61.79 lakh last year, according to the statistics compiled by AAI. All that appears to have come to a halt.
LOSING ALLURE
Airport officials have reason to fear that the numbers might decrease further
Domestic passenger traffic decreased by 15% International departures dipped by 8%, domestic deparatures by 18% Airlines are also not starting new services
International passsenger traffic has been on a decline since Dec 2008