Bengaluru the fastest-growing metro airport for international traffic in FY26; Delhi remains undisputed king

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) declared the footfalls for all airports in the country for the last financial year. The data, always an indicator of the performance of airports and the city, shows the pressure that Indian aviation went through in the last financial year from April 2025 to March 2026. Delhi remained the largest airport in the country, followed by Mumbai, and Bengaluru occupied the third spot.

Bengaluru shines for international traffic

International traffic saw a modest growth of 4.2%, while domestic traffic grew only 1.4% in the last financial year. Combined, the growth was 1.9% in footfalls across India. Among the six metro airports, Bengaluru saw the highest growth with 23.9% additional footfalls compared to the previous financial year. The footfalls at Bengaluru were 72,27,399 in FY26. Hyderabad saw growth of 8.2%, Chennai grew at 4.9%, while Mumbai grew at 4.8%. Delhi remained flat with a de-growth of 0.1%, with Kolkata seeing 5% fewer passengers in FY26 than FY25. Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad comprised the top four ranks for international footfalls.

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Kochi occupied the fifth place in rankings with 53.3 lakh footfall of international passengers, a growth of 1.7%, while Kolkata was sixth. Guwahati, Mangalore and Bhubaneshwar saw a spike in traffic with nearly a one-fourth increase in footfalls, largely due to lower base numbers, with absolute numbers being lower as compared to the major airports in the country.

Airports at Amritsar, Goa Dabolim, Srinagar, Port Blair, Chandigarh, Indore and Vizag saw a dip in traffic, which was over 10% of the previous year. Some of these airports do not have scheduled international service and the numbers indicate charter services or special flights like those for the Haj pilgrimage. Goa-Dabolim saw the transfer of some services to Goa-Mopa.

Non-metros drive domestic growth

Domestic traffic remained muted across the top six metros. Delhi and Mumbai, the top two, saw negative growth of 0.9% and 1.5%, respectively. Bengaluru grew by 3.3% while Hyderabad grew by 2.4%. Chennai and Kolkata, the two AAI-run airports, saw domestic footfalls increase by 1.9% at Chennai, and a decrease of 3.1% at Kolkata over the previous year.

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Among airports handling over one lakh passengers a year, Shivamogga (54%), Nashik (24%), Tuticorin (26%), Kishangarh (44%), Darbhanga (48%), Bhuj (50%), Trichy (48%), Kozhikode (28%), and Agra (53%) saw significant growth. Among very small airports with annual footfall less than one lakh passengers, Utkela (60%) and Tezu (74%) saw hyper growth on the back of a small base for the previous year.

Important cities beyond metros also saw a dip in traffic, and these include Amritsar (-18%), Goa Dabolum (-15%), Srinagar (-24%), and Trivandrum (-13%), while cities like Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar, Port Blair, Rajkot, Indore, Bagdogra, and Patna saw modest growth and in some cases, double-digit ones.

Delhi — the undisputed king

Delhi remained the undisputed king for traffic in India with annual footfalls of 7,87,01,971 last financial year. This was followed by Mumbai with 5,52,90,095 passengers across domestic and international flights. Bengaluru, which is close third for domestic flights, managed to stay third overall with a footfall of 4,44,70,035 passengers. Hyderabad came in fourth with 3,04,83,885. Chennai and Kolkata occupied the next two spots with 2,30,17,324 and 2,11,02,741 footfalls, respectively. Seventh position was occupied by Ahmedabad with a footfall of 1,38,22,287. Kochi and Pune, the two non-capital airports, occupy the eighth and ninth spots with footfalls of 1,13,02,552 and 1,10,05,988, respectively. No other city had annual footfalls of over one crore.

Rankings would change next year

With Navi Mumbai airport starting operations and IndiGo being a major player there, the top 10 rankings would change in the current financial year. Over the next few months, as road transport and other connectivity improve, Navi Mumbai airport would gain traction. While rankings change, all eyes will be on whether the traffic improves. Airports, especially the greenfield and private ones, try to attract new services or gain a significant chunk of existing services.

Will the current tensions have an impact on the traffic more than rankings?

The author, Ameya Joshi, is an aviation analyst.