Friday, December 11, 2020

Mangaluru airport sees surge in footfall

Mangaluru: Passenger traffic at Mangaluru International Airport, which plunged to almost nil during the lockdown, is steaming towards full capacity. Authorities expect an increase in passenger flow by the year end, thanks to an increase in domestic and international aircraft movement.

In October, 41,409 domestic passengers passed through MIA against 1,09,792 passengers in October 2019. Still, it was a huge increase over May, when only 909 domestic passengers used MIA. In June, it went up to 4,882 and September saw 27,699 passengers. The traffic nearly trebled from August to October, indicating growing confidence among operators and passengers.

As for international passengers, October passenger traffic of 12,157 passengers is a fourth of what was seen in October last year — 48,028. At present, international flights are operating to countries in the Middle East under the air bubble agreement.

Sudha Chatterjee, MIA spokesperson, said plans are afoot to introduce new domestic airline services from Mangaluru airport, even as some carriers said domestic and international passenger flow has seen a big improvement.

“Seats on inbound flights are 90% booked and outbound bookings are at about 75%,” said an official of a private operator. “We expect a rush this year-end,” said an another airline service official.

11/12/20 Times of India

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