AN ANALYTICAL OVERVIEW OF PASSENGER TRAFFIC FOR SELECTED INDIAN AIRPORTS

Most of the regional airports in India are financially unsustainable because of low and fluctuating passenger traffic. Despite double digit passenger traffic growth since past four years, most regional Indian airports are yet to achieve financial sustainability due to high fixed operating costs and low non-aeronautical revenue. The Indian government is putting special emphasis on regional air connectivity through UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme. However, it is difficult to ascertain whether such schemes can ensure airport profitability. This paper attempts to find the operating breakeven point in terms of annual passenger traffic for 27 regional airports over a period of three years.