Mangaluru: Mangaluru International Airport has been declared as the cleanest and the best maintained airport in the country in the 15 lakh to 50 lakh passenger handling airport category (B-category) by the Airports Authority of India, among AAI-managed airports.

V.V. Rao, director of the airport, told reporters here on Tuesday that the survey was done in February 2018. He received a trophy to this effect in Delhi on March 31.

He said that many passenger friendly facilities were introduced in the airport in the last one year. Some of them are installation of sanitary napkin vending machines in the washrooms for women, introducing tagless baggage clearance, refurnishing child care room with baby cradle and prams and declaring it as a silent airport.

Passengers are now welcomed in the terminal building with the famous Mangaluru jasmine fragrance through automatic dispenser machines installed in various locations in the terminal building. Local art works showcasing the culture and tradition of Mangaluru region would be displayed in the terminal building this year at an estimated cost of ₹1 crore.

He said that the taxi drivers, trolley retrievers and attendants at the parking area have been given grooming session in November last year, on how they should conduct themselves with passengers and visitors to the airport.

The director said that the passenger traffic in the airport went up to 23.4 lakh in 2017-18 from 17.5 lakh in 2016-17. It is expected to touch to 30 lakh during 2018-19.

The airport now handles 30 flights and 60 movements a day. It is one of the fastest growing airports in the country.

To a question, he said that the airport has drawn up a plan to reserve its first floor for departing passengers and the ground floor for arrival.

The commissioning of parallel taxi way project phase I has increased the runway handling capacity from 10 flights per hour to 14 flights per hour. When the phase II of the project is commissioned, the runway handling capacity of would go up to 17 flights per hour.