As soon as India lifted the ban from international borders, the aviation industry witnessed a rise in passenger inflow like never before. Air traffic has increased manifold since March and as per a recent report, the Indira Gandhi International Airport in the national capital emerged as the world's 10th busiest airport in October. The Delhi international airport has improved its ranking from 14th place in 2019 to 10th place in 2022. The rankings by aviation analytics firm OAG are based on scheduled airline capacity in the current month and compared to the equivalent month in 2019, pre-pandemic. In October 2022, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was the busiest in the world. 


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The world's top 10 busiest airports list is prepared using total capacity, both domestic and international. After Atlanta, Dubai and Tokyo Haneda airports are at the 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively.


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"When compared to October 2019, 6 of the Top 10 this month were also among the world's Top 10 busiest airports then; airports which have seen their rankings rise, bringing them into the Top 10 now, are Dallas/Fort Worth (from 12th to 4th), Denver (from 20th to 5th), Istanbul (from 13th to 8th), and Delhi (from 14th to 10th)," OAG said in the report on its website.


For the Delhi airport, also known as the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), the number of seats was 34,13,855, as per OAG. The Indian aviation sector is recovering after being significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic that also saw scheduled international flight services remaining suspended for more than two years starting from March 2020.


At the 6th place is London Heathrow Airport, followed by Chicago O'Hare International Airport at the 7th spot and Los Angeles International Airport is in the 9th position, the OAG report said. According to the report, Dubai is the busiest international airport, followed by London Heathrow Airport and Amsterdam airport at the 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively. There is no Indian airport in the top 10 list of busiest international airports.


In another report, OAG said Mumbai to Dubai and Delhi to Dubai were among the top 10 busiest international routes. The busiest airline routes are those with the largest volume of scheduled seats during the period from October 2021 to September 2022.


"India is also seeing an increase in route capacity with two routes in the top 10, operating from Mumbai to Dubai (BOM-DXB) and Delhi to Dubai (DEL-DXB)," it said. Also, the route between Mumbai and New York is among the largest unserved routes, which OAG defines as the routes with the largest volume of people travelling indirectly between two points.


"Based on passenger booking data for the period August 2021 - July 2022, eight of the top 10 largest unserved routes start or end in North America. New York features in three of the routes with Quito - New York (UIO-JFK) the largest market, with more than enough passengers to potentially sustain a direct service," the report said.


Further, OAG noted that the other New York routes include India's largest city, Mumbai (BOM-JFK) with nearly 82,000 passengers in 12 months currently travelling indirectly between these two cities.


(With inputs from PTI)