The overall passenger movements at the city airport in the first six months of this fiscal (April to September) has registered a marginal 0.53 per cent rise compared to the corresponding figures of 2008. While the difference between passenger movements in these months and those of the previous year is just about 63,000, the airport officials are confident that the trend is likely to continue. Also, on a month-on-month comparison, September’s passenger movements registered a significant 15 per cent jump.

Domestic carriers have seen a rise in their load factors since the first week of September, partly owing to the festival season and the increasing industrial recovery. Though airport officials are confident that passenger movements for 2009-10 would be higher than the 2.3 crore last year, they don’t expect them to cross the historic high of 2.5 crore in 2007-08.

“The passenger movements for the first half of this financial year has crossed last year’s marginally but if the trend keeps growing then we’ll achieve higher passenger numbers than last year,” a Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) spokesperson said. “But we will not be able to match the numbers achieved in 2008 as it was a boom time for the aviation industry.”

The recovery in passenger numbers were first noted in June this year when on a month-on-month comparison the figures were 0.17 per cent higher. “This was the first month this year when figures were higher than those of 2008.”

Till May this year, the airport’s passenger figures were consistently lower than the 2008 levels on a monthly comparison. However, following June this year, the numbers kept going up by 6.78 per cent in July and 8.4 per cent in August. “Air travel is an early indicator of a recovery in the economy and therefore we can expect more people flying in 2010,” a senior MIAL official said.