Kolkata: Cash-strapped Jet Airways on Wednesday announced the suspension of all domestic and international flights. But in Kolkata, the withdrawal of flights began nearly a year ago with the carrier reducing the number of departures from 48 in 2017 to first 22 by mid-2018 to six and finally two before even these were pulled out last week. The impact of pulling of so many flights has sharply impacted Kolkata airport’s growth, a challenge that other airports in the country will face in 2019-20 if Jet Airways doesn’t take to the skies again.
According to statistics on Kolkata airport released by the Airports Authority of India in 2018-19, passenger traffic grew at 10% to hit nearly 22 million, 2 million more than 2017-18. But the growth slowed down from a racy 26% in 2017-18 to 10% in 2018-19 as Jet Airways pulled out flights through the year, impacting numbers. This is the lowest growth in the last three years. The airport had recorded a growth of 24% in 2016-17 and 14% in 2015-16.
Of the 22 million passengers who flew out of Kolkata airport in the year under review, 19.1 million were domestic and 2.8 million international. The busiest month was January when nearly 2 million passengers took flights out of Kolkata. August, in comparison, was the least busy with nearly 3,00,000 less passengers taking flights.
The impact of the Jet Airways pullout could have had a more adverse affect on growth had not IndiGo Airlines added over two dozen flights during the year. However, the impact will continue to be felt in 2019-20 as well given that Jet Airways operated over 11,000 flights and carried 1.5 million passengers through the year. Unless the airline resumes operations in May and reconnects Kolkata, the airport's growth estimates will go haywire.
Kolkata airport director Kaushik Bhattacharjee though expects a robust growth with other carriers — IndiGo, GoAir, AirAsia India and Vistara — expected to add flights to Kolkata. While IndiGo may turn Kolkata into an international hub for flights to South-East Asia and China, other airlines will increase their domestic network by connecting Kolkata to multiple cities.
“Given the growth projections, Kolkata airport will reach its capacity of 24 million passengers a year in 2019-20. The challenge will be to maintain the growth thereafter as any addition to the capacity by way of a second phase of expansion will take at least three years to execute. While that plan is on the drawing board, we are working on ways to increase ease of travel through Kolkata airport by ringng in several changes. Most of them will happen through the year,” said Bhattacharjee.
19/04/19 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India
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According to statistics on Kolkata airport released by the Airports Authority of India in 2018-19, passenger traffic grew at 10% to hit nearly 22 million, 2 million more than 2017-18. But the growth slowed down from a racy 26% in 2017-18 to 10% in 2018-19 as Jet Airways pulled out flights through the year, impacting numbers. This is the lowest growth in the last three years. The airport had recorded a growth of 24% in 2016-17 and 14% in 2015-16.
Of the 22 million passengers who flew out of Kolkata airport in the year under review, 19.1 million were domestic and 2.8 million international. The busiest month was January when nearly 2 million passengers took flights out of Kolkata. August, in comparison, was the least busy with nearly 3,00,000 less passengers taking flights.
The impact of the Jet Airways pullout could have had a more adverse affect on growth had not IndiGo Airlines added over two dozen flights during the year. However, the impact will continue to be felt in 2019-20 as well given that Jet Airways operated over 11,000 flights and carried 1.5 million passengers through the year. Unless the airline resumes operations in May and reconnects Kolkata, the airport's growth estimates will go haywire.
Kolkata airport director Kaushik Bhattacharjee though expects a robust growth with other carriers — IndiGo, GoAir, AirAsia India and Vistara — expected to add flights to Kolkata. While IndiGo may turn Kolkata into an international hub for flights to South-East Asia and China, other airlines will increase their domestic network by connecting Kolkata to multiple cities.
“Given the growth projections, Kolkata airport will reach its capacity of 24 million passengers a year in 2019-20. The challenge will be to maintain the growth thereafter as any addition to the capacity by way of a second phase of expansion will take at least three years to execute. While that plan is on the drawing board, we are working on ways to increase ease of travel through Kolkata airport by ringng in several changes. Most of them will happen through the year,” said Bhattacharjee.
19/04/19 Subhro Niyogi/Times of India
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