The aviation sector has started showing signs of recovery in 2022 after remaining affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic for two years. Global travel data operator Official Airline Guide (OAG) said Delhi Airport has emerged as the world’s second busiest airport in March 2022, in terms of total seat capacity and frequency of domestic and international flights.

The airport handled about 31.65 million domestic passengers and 5.49 million international traffic in CY 2021. It emerged as the top-most among all Indian airports in terms of handling domestic as well as international passenger traffic in CY 2020 and CY 2021.

Delhi International Airport, with a seating capacity of 3,611,181 seats, is also India’s second busiest airport and has knocked out Dubai International Airport (3,554,527 seats).

Delhi airport had ranked third after Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and Dubai International Airport as per the last ranking issued in March for February 2022. It managed to surpass China’s Guangzhou airport, which was the fourth busiest airport across the globe. The airport has also made the biggest leap from 23rd position in April 2019 to the second spot in March 2022. The airport was in 23rd position among the busiest airports in the world before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rankings are based on scheduled capacity in the current month and compared to the equivalent month in 2019 before the pandemic.