Rapid growth in low-cost airline business increased the revenue of non-metro airports like Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Cochin and Pune by more than 50 per cent in 2005-06.

While airport-specific revenue numbers are still unavailable, growth in aircraft movement confirms the spike in revenue.

Domestic aircraft movement in Hyderabad, for instance, has grown 64.9 per cent in 2005-06, followed by Coimbatore (59.7 per cent), Cochin (54 per cent), Ahmedabad (52.8 per cent) and Pune (50.6 per cent). Aircraft movement in Delhi grew 31.4 per cent. Hyderabad alone handled 40,875 domestic aircraft in 2005-06.

Other airports registering high growth in revenue were Jaipur, Udaipur, Srinagar, Amritsar, Ambala, etc.

Several airlines have also made non-metro airports hubs of their operations. SpiceJet, for instance, has Ahmedabad as its hub.

‘‘At startup, we had many flights connecting Ahmedabad and Pune to metros. It takes time to develop traffic on new routes, but we have had positive experience,’’ Spicejet director Ajay Singh said.

atreyee.roy@expressindia.cim