The city airport saw its highest passenger traffic since the pandemic in Oct, mainly due to the convergence of festivals such as Durga Puja (Durga Puja), Kali Puja (Kali Puja), Diwali (Diwali) and Bhai Phonta. The numbers are impressive but still lower than the pre-pandemic October 2019 levels. The airport handled 19,2 lakh passengers during the month, as opposed to 20,1 lakh in Oct 2019. It is worth noting that 2019 saw an early Durga Puja during the first week in October, along with other major holidays.
“There was a steady flow of flyers at the beginning of the year, and there were over 60,000 passengers transiting the airport on most days of the week.” If we had not been forced to shut down the airport for almost two days and nearly 14 hours, multiple flights would have been cancelled.
Beuria said that additional staff had been deployed to ensure smoother passenger movement. DigiYatra lanes for manual entry were also used during peak hours to speed up processing. Official data shows the airport handled 17.2 lakh passengers as of October 2023. The Covid years of 2020 and 2021/22 saw a significant reduction in numbers, with 8.1 lakh passengers and 12.4 million respectively. While the numbers increased to 16,3 lakh in 2022 after the removal of travel restrictions they still haven’t reached 2019 levels.
In October, the number domestic arrivals reached 9 lakh and the number of departures 8,2 lakh. International traffic included 1.1 lakh incoming passengers, and approximately 1 lakh outbound travellers. Oct 20 was the busiest day of the month, with 72 013 passengers. The average daily traffic in October was 62,000.
Officials reported that in Oct 2019, 17.4 lakh domestic flights carried 13,106 passengers and 2,173 international flights carried 2.7 lakh passengers, with an average of 131 passengers on each flight. “However, in the domestic sector we have not yet reached the pre-Covid flights count, and in the International sector, some flights that stopped service for Covid have yet to return.
There were 11,390 domestic and 1,261 foreign flights in January, bringing the total to 12,651 compared to 15,279 flights in 2019. “There were approximately 152 passengers on each flight last month. This is significantly more than in 2019.” said another official.
Early November, officials noted a continued high passenger number. Even on Sunday the airport departure area was crowded with passengers returning to their workplaces following the end of the festivities.
Kolkata: The city’s airport recorded its highest post pandemic passenger traffic in October, driven largely by the convergence of festivals, including Durga Puja (a Hindu festival), Kali Puja (a Hindu festival), Diwali (a Hindu festival) and Bhai Phonta. Despite being impressive, the numbers were still below pre-pandemic October 2019 levels. The airport handled 19,2 lakh passengers during the month, as opposed to 20,1 lakh in Oct 2019. It is worth noting that 2019 also saw an early Durga Puja during the first week in October, along with other major holidays.
“There was a steady flow of flyers at the beginning of the year, and there were over 60,000 passengers transiting the airport on most days of the week.”
If we had not been forced to shut down the airport for almost two days and nearly 14 hours, multiple flights would have been cancelled.
Beuria said that additional staff had been deployed to ensure smoother passenger movement. DigiYatra lanes for manual entry were also used during peak hours to speed up processing. Official data shows the airport handled 17.2 lakh passengers as of October 2023. In the years 2020 and 2021, Covid had a significant impact on passenger numbers. They were reduced by 8.1 lakh and 12.4 lakh respectively. Despite the fact that numbers increased to 16,3 lakh in 2022 after the removal of travel restrictions they still haven’t reached 2019 levels.
In October, the number domestic arrivals reached 9 lakh and the number of departures 8,2 lakh. International traffic included 1.1 lakh incoming passengers, and approximately 1 lakh outbound travellers. Oct 20 was the busiest day of the month, with 72 013 passengers. The average daily traffic in October was 62,000.
Officials reported that in Oct 2019, 17.4 lakh domestic flights carried 13,106 passengers and 2,173 international flights carried 2.7 lakh passengers, with an average of 131 passengers on each flight. “However, in the domestic sector we have not yet reached the pre-Covid flights count, and in the International sector, some flights that stopped service for Covid have yet to return.
There were 11,390 domestic and 1,261 foreign flights in January, bringing the total to 12,651 compared to 15,279 flights in 2019.
“There were approximately 152 passengers on each flight last month. This is significantly higher than the passengers on each flight in 2019”, said another official.
Early November, officials noted a continued high passenger number. Even on Sunday the airport departure area was crowded with passengers returning to their workplaces following the end of the festivities.
