Following is extracted from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55629. The ranking is based on "the average number of flights operated in a day from each of the International Airports in the country":
- Mumbai(MIAL) – 654, Juhu – 60
- Delhi – 666
- Chennai – 306
- Banglore (BIAL) – 280
- Kolkata – 231
- Hyderabad (GHIAL) – 219
- Cochin – 112
- Ahmedabad- 107
- Guwahati – 90
- Trivandrum – 71
- Jaipur – 66, Pune – 66
- Goa – 64
- Indore – 61
- Bhopal – 59
- Lucknow – 56
- Vadodra – 54
- Bhubaneswar – 50, Calicut – 50
- Nagpur – 48
- Coimbatore – 42
- Visakhapatnam – 33
- Ranchi – 32
- Raipur – 31
- Mangalore – 30
- Patna – 27, Srinagar – 27, Amritsar – 27
- Jammu- 23, Agartala – 23
- Trichy – 21, Chandigarh – 21, Udaipur -21
- Madurai – 20
- Imphal – 19, Bagdogra – 19
- Varanasi – 16
- Port Blair – 15
- Aurangabad – 14
- Silchar – 11
- Tirupati – 9
- Jodhpur – 7
- Leh – 6
- Rajkot – 6
- Gaya – 1
The mention of the word "international" in the above item is somewhat incorrect, as the list of international airports given in http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55628 is a different list. For example, Bhubaneswar is not in that list.
On related news, Bhubaneswar is among the 10 airports that are being taken up for city side development in the first phase. Following is an excerpt from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=55627.
In the 1st phase, ten airports namely Kolkata, Hyderabad (Begumpet), Vishakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Indore, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Guwahati and Jaipur should be taken up for city side development.
Some of the facilities planned to be made available are hotels, restaurants, convention centres, food court, flight kitchen, petrol pump, retail shops, cargo facilities, parking etc.
The land available at the airports on the cityside is to be carried out and leased through open tender for development of facilities. The amount to be spent for city side development at each airport would depend upon the bid to be submitted by the successful bidder selected through competitive bidding.
An Idea: Besides new functional airports at Jharsuguda, Rourkela or both, and regional services in small planes to locations like Koraput, Joda-Barbil, Keonjhar, Baripada, Berhampur, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Lanjigarh-Bhawanipatna, Balasore, etc., one other way to develop the air connectivity of Orissa further is to develop air-bus terminals in cities and towns within two hours (200 kms) of Bhubaneswar. This would include luxury bus services and special counters at
- Cuttack station, Cuttack
- Puri
- Konark
- Dhenkanal, Angul, Talcher
- Chilika area (Barakul, Rambha), Chhatrapur, Berhampur
- Paradeep
- Kalinganagar
- Bhadrak, Balasore
- Bhubaneswar Station
- Khurda rd Station
The airport should bunch together its flights and have luxury buses (of various sizes) running 3-4 times a day to and from these destinations. Outside the airport there should be a luxury bus terminal for these flights. After getting off one should be able to take one of these buses (within an hour) to one of the above destinations right from the airport premises. Similarly, one should be able to take a bus from one of these locations to the Bhubaneswar airport.
This will be a win-win situation for every one. Since the population base that can use the airport will increase this will lead to more flights. Alternatively, various places will have somewhat of an air connectivity. (Note that in big cities it may take 1-2 hr to just to get to the airport.) It will also facilitate tourists.
Such bus servivce from airports to nearby cities is common in many parts of the world. I have used it in Mexico.
