Passengers crowd near the entrance of Jaiprakash Narayan Airport in Patna. Telegraph picture

Patna, June 3: Continuing with its growth story, the Jaiprakash Narayan International Airport has emerged as the fastest growing airport of the country in terms of increase in passenger flow for the second consecutive year in 2010-11.

Official figures reveal Patna airport handled 8,38,509 passengers in 2010-11, 51.8 per cent more than that it handled in 2009-10. Total 5,52,440 passengers had used the airport in 2009-10.

The airport had registered a growth of 42.2 per cent in terms of passengers’ flow in 2009-10, the highest in the country.

The massive increase in the absolute number of passengers helped the airport improve its overall ranking among the 46 major airports of the country. In the past three years, it has registered an improvement of 12 ranks.

In 2010-11, Patna ranked 22nd among the 46 major airports of the country in terms of passenger flow.

The Patna airport was at 34th position among the top 46 airports in India in 2008-09. It was ranked 25th in 2009-10.

The city airport surpassed Bagdogra, Jammu, Raipur, Varanasi, Agartala, Chandigarh, Madurai, Vadodara and Port Blair airports in terms of growth during in 2009-10.

In its journey from the 25th to 22nd rank in 2010-11, the Patna airport left behind Amritsar, Trichy and Vishakhapatnam.

The increase in passenger flow apart, the Patna airport witnessed a healthy increase in aircraft movement in the past three years. The number of aircraft movement in 2008-09 stood at 5,230. It went up to 7,464 in 2009-10 and to 9,547 in 2010-11.

The performance of the Patna airport should be considered commendable because the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had declared it as one of the most critical airports of the country.

“Obstructions in approach funnel, short runway length, small terminal building and load penalty are some of the factors which could have not allowed the growth of this airport. But neither the operators, nor the flyers were deterred by them. The official figures released for 2010-11 reflected it,” a source in the aviation industry said.

The Patna airport director Arvind Dubey refused to speak on these issues but maintained that issues like expansion work of the airport terminal building and removal of obstacles in the approach funnel would have to be addressed on a priority basis to sustain the high growth rate of the airport.

“We have been requesting the state government to allocate more land for the expansion of the airport terminal building and removal of the obstacles in the approach funnel for quite some time, but the desired response is still awaited. We have, however, every hope that the state government will take all possible steps and help us in providing the necessary infrastructure for moving ahead on the growth part,” Dubey said.