India’s first corporate airport promoted by some 10,000 NRI investors handled more than five million passengers last year, its officials said Friday.

VJ Kurien, the managing director of the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) said the airport achieved the milestone despite a decline in aviation sector in other parts of India.

The airport was showing consistent growth in both passenger traffic and aircraft  movements since its inception one and a half decades ago. The airport handled 5.39 million passengers  in 2013-14, an increase of 10.01percent from the previous fiscal year.

“The fact that the international passengers exceeds the domestic passengers is a healthy trend that shows the potentials of the airport,” he said.

While 3.271 million international travellers chose the airport last year, there were only 2.119 million domestic passengers. The CIAL has recorded 11.49 percent growth in international and 7.8 percent in domestic fliers.

In 2013-14, the airport also recorded 47,072 aircraft movements, which is higher by 13.32 percent compared to the previous year.

“The strength of the company is the services of international standards that we offer at a low cost. We have always been adhering to this vision. We will make this airport as the hub of air traffic in south India,” he said.

Even though the present terminals have the capacity of handling sufficient passenger  volume, the CIAL, which has already returned the entire money of the shareholders by way of dividends, is building a new international terminal at a cost of Rs8.5 billion to meet futire needs.

At present, 19 international carriers and six domestic carriers are operating services from Cochin Airport and they together operate 963 weekly schedules, which include 35 each to destinations like Sharjah and Dubai and 21 services to Abu Dhabi.

CIAL’s cargo division also increased its turnover as the total tonnage went up by 17  percent. The CIAL handled 54440 tons of cargo last year against the previous year’s  46530.3 tons.

The perishable cargo has witnessed a growth of 22.19 percent, thanks to the high end air-conditioned warehouse built by CIAL a few years ago The airport targets an annual revenue of Rs30bn through diversified businesses in the next 10 years. It aims at increasing non-aviation revenue multifold. Currently, only 30 percent of the airport’s revenue is generated from aviation business.

The CIAL, which is yet to go public, has more than 10,000 shareholders, mostly from the Gulf region, and it clocked a profit of Rs 1.1 billion the previous year from a total revenue of Rs3.1bn and paid out 17 percent dividend to its shareholders.