Chandigarh airport catered to 11 lakh more passengers this year
The airport also saw 23% increase in aircraft movement. Sahay said that 26,415 aircraft flew from the Chandigarh airport in 2022-23, while the number during the previous corresponding period was 21,144
Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport handled 11.2 lakh more passengers during the current financial year -- a rise of about 52% from the previous year’s figures, said Rakesh Ranjan Sahay, chief executive officer (CEO) of Chandigarh International Airport Limited (CHIAL). As per the top airport official, the number of passengers who flew in 2022-23 was 33.1 lakh, up from the previous year’s 21.8 lakh.
The airport also saw 23% increase in aircraft movement. Sahay said that 26,415 aircraft flew from the Chandigarh airport in 2022-23, while the number during the previous corresponding period was 21,144.
Barring the peak Covid pandemic period in 2020-21, the aircraft movement has increased in the past five years, Sahay said. According to the data furnished by him, 21.3 lakh passengers travelled through 17,653 aircraft in 2018-19, while the number of travellers, who boarded or arrived through 19,085 aircraft at the Chandigarh airport, in 2019-20 was 24.4 lakh.
In 2020-21, there was a dip in aircraft movement with only 12,774 flights taking off from the airport. The number of passengers during this period was 13.8 lakh, Sahay said.
Airport’s summer schedule announced
A new private airline carrier will also start its operations on the Chandigarh-Bengaluru sector from April 1, according to the summer flight schedule released by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The direct flight of Akasa Air will be the eighth to the Karnataka capital from the Chandigarh airport. Three flights each are already being operated by Air Vistara and IndiGo, while one IndiGo flight arrives from Bengaluru, but departs for Delhi after a night halt. Sahay said the summer schedule will remain in effect from March 26 till October 28.
Neither has any new international flight been announced nor a new destination added besides the current connectivity to Sharjah and Dubai from the Chandigarh airport.
In the summer schedule, there are 11 flights to Delhi; nine to Mumbai; three each to Jaipur, Leh, Goa, and Srinagar; two each to Hyderabad and Ahmedabad; and one each to Patna, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Kullu, Dharamshala, and Indore.