Thiruvananthapuram airport witnesses changing preferences of flyers in short intervals

Passenger traffic trends at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport have recently reversed, with international travellers now outnumbering domestic passengers. Over the past couple of years, domestic traffic had consistently been higher.

The airport recorded its highest-ever monthly passenger traffic in January, handling 4,50,090 passengers. Of these, 2.27 lakh were international travellers, while domestic flyers accounted for around 2.22 lakh. A similar pattern was observed in December 2025, when international passengers (2.18 lakh) exceeded domestic flyers (2 lakh) out of a total monthly footfall of 4.19 lakh. In November, however, domestic passengers had still outnumbered international travellers.

In the pre-COVID-19 period, international passengers constituted a larger share of traffic at the airport: out of every 100 passengers passing through Thiruvananthapuram, 56 were international and 44 domestic. This marked a shift from 2016–17, when the ratio stood at 65:35 in favour of international travellers. According to airport authorities, the recent reversal in trend is largely driven by changing transit passenger preferences.

For instance, when domestic traffic was higher, there was significant movement to Mumbai, which had emerged as an affordable transit hub for international flyers from Kerala, despite the availability of direct flights to West Asia. Currently, there has been a comparable increase in international passengers from other cities using Thiruvananthapuram as a transit point for overseas destinations.

User development fee

Despite the relatively high user development fee (UDF) levied at the airport, competitive airfares—particularly for transit passengers—offered by airlines have played a crucial role in shaping these fluctuating trends. The airport charges a UDF of ₹770 for embarking domestic passengers and ₹330 for disembarking domestic passengers. For international travellers, the fee is ₹1,540 for embarking and ₹660 for disembarking passengers. According to data presented by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Parliament, the airport collected a record ₹383.26 crore in UDF in 2025.

Airport authorities have clarified that, notwithstanding the higher user fee, airlines continue to offer competitive fares, which remains the key factor in attracting transit traffic to Thiruvananthapuram. They also noted that the airport concessionaire paid a true-up tariff of ₹902 crore to the Airports Authority of India to compensate for losses incurred during the COVID-19 period. This amount is now being recovered through the UDF. Additionally, efforts are under way to attract more airlines to launch services from Thiruvananthapuram, which is expected to further reduce fares.

The airport’s daily average passenger traffic has now surpassed 15,000, marking a significant milestone in its growth trajectory.