Mumbai airport is expected to register its highest ever annual traffic with 51 million passengers in FY 2024.

“Traffic is growing at a good pace. We have done very well after coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the current year we shall be crossing 51 million passengers,” Prakash Tulsiani, Chief Executive Officer of Mumbai International Airport Ltd, said on Friday.

The previous traffic record of Mumbai is 48.9 million passengers in FY19. Domestic passengers accounts for nearly 75 per cent of the traffic and is showing faster growth than international traffic which accounts for the remainder.

In July-September quarter, Mumbai airport handled 12.7 million passengers, a growth of 33 per cent over the same period last year and over 100 per cent over the same quarter of 2019.

Tulsiani was speaking at the launch of Emirates’ premium economy service in India. Tulsiani said Mumbai airport will soon have separate security check lanes for premium economy passengers.

Emirates will offer the premium economy service on board its Airbus A380 flights to Mumbai and Bengaluru from October 29. Emirates Airbus A380 aircraft feature 56 premium economy seats that offer more comfort and better leg room to customers.

The airline operates 167 weekly flights to India and is the largest foreign airline operating to the country.

Globally, Emirates introduced premium economy service last August and so far 1,60,000 passengers have travelled in the cabin, said Mohammad Sarhan, the airline’s vice president for India and Nepal. Currently the airline offers this service to London Heathrow, select destinations in the US and Australia among others.

“Demand for premium economy has been in high in India and so we are introducing these services to give end to end product offering to our customers,” added Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer.