Thursday, March 04, 2021

Footfall of 10 lakh passengers at Srinagar Airport in 4 months

Srinagar: After witnessing a lull in passenger footfalls during the last summer due to Covid 19, the Srinagar International Airport has received almost 10 lakh passengers between November 2020 and February 2021 – thanks to the revival of the tourism sector.

Flight operations had resumed in May last year after a hiatus of three months owing to the outbreak of Covid-19. However, after air traffic resumed, Srinagar Airport witnessed 61 flight arrivals during the month of May. The boom in air travel though was seen by the end of 2020 when Kashmir started witnessing a large number of tourist arrivals. As per Airports Authority of India (AAI) data, the highest number of passenger footfalls at the Srinagar Airport since resumption of air traffic was 218783 in December last year which saw 705 flight arrivals. These were all domestic flights.

Director Airports Authority of India, Srinagar, Santosh Dhoke said the airport was handling almost 9000-10000 passengers daily with almost 25 to 30 flight arrivals and at times even more.

Dhoke said the increase in tourist influx is the main reason for the sharp spike in passenger footfalls. “Compared to many other airports with a similar passenger handling capacity, Srinagar Airport has seen a sharp increase in the footfalls. The revival of tourism in the Valley is one of the reasons for this increase as we saw a lot of rush of holidaymakers during winters,” Dhoke said. The Airport Director said there was a plan in the pipeline to upgrade infrastructure of both the airport terminal building as well as runway expansion to handle the increasing passenger influx. He said focus as of now was to ensure that all Covid-19 protocols were being followed.

04/03/21 Saqib Malik/Greater Kashmir

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