T’puram: Passenger traffic is reviving at Thiruvananthapuram airport after a decline due to the disruptions caused by the war in Middle East in March.On Thursday, the number of passengers touched 15,000 driven by festival travel. That was the number the airport used to see in the pre-war days before international flights were affected.The numbers began to decline when domestic flights were disrupted as the IndiGo flights got cancelled last year and the decline worsened when international flights were cancelled off and on when the US-Iran war continued over the last five months.An airport official said the daily numbers have been hovering between 14,000 and 15,000 per day recently.“Travel has revived though all the domestic flights are yet to be resumed because of a variety of reasons including aviation turbine fuel prices. International flights have resumed,” the official said.The Onam festival holidays have seen an increase in passenger movement at the airport as people are choosing domestic and international holidays for the vacation.He said that the airport is also expecting more flights to be added to the winter schedule that will begin in Oct.The airport is undergoing expansion at the city side and at the airside. These constraints have impacted the airport’s ability to accommodate more flights. But the airlines are inquiring about new routes and frequency additions.The airport is building new terminals to increase its passenger handling capacity to 12 million passengers per year. The overall expansion will be completed by 2027-2030.In addition to festival and long weekend travel, people are travelling during monsoon season too. This has helped in improving passenger traffic.A Cleartrip study showed that the rainy months are now emerging as a preferred travel window as hotel and flight bookings have increased. There is a 54% increase in hotel bookings at tourist destinations.
