Weekend travellers increase at Mumbai airport, passenger traffic up by 59% in July

According to airport officials, approximately 1.1 million passengers have flown in at least 1,400 flights across domestic and international destinations last month

Higher domestic flight capacity and ease in domestic travel restrictions have accelerated passenger traffic during the weekend at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA). The city airport registered 59% increase in passenger traffic in July as compared to June.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. (HT Photo)

According to airport officials, approximately 1.1 million passengers have flown in at least 1,400 flights across domestic and international destinations last month.

Mumbai airport spokesperson said among the total number of passengers, CSMIA witnessed a capacity of approximately 0.5 million passengers over 4,000 plus flights only during the weekends, while June month observed 0.3 million passengers over 2,700 plus flights during the weekends.

Looking at this upsurge in passenger traffic and easing of travel restrictions CSMIA reintroduced five domestic routes to Tier 2 cities like Bareilly, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Ajmer and Porbandar.

“The gradual opening of offices is complemented with an increase in the flight capacity, which has been the other factor for sequential growth from CSMIA. Weekends saw a majority of passengers travelling to Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad destinations from CSMIA in the domestic sector and Doha, Newark and Dubai destinations in the international sector,” the spokesperson said.

According to rating agency ICRA- July 2021 witnessed a 132% year-on-year growth in domestic passenger traffic as Covid-19 cases continued to clock in low numbers during the month. Domestic passenger traffic also grew around 56 -57% (at around 48-49 lakh) in July, compared to around 31.1 lakh in June. According to ICRA, the airlines’ capacity deployment last month was around 90% higher than July 2020 (around 47,200 departures in July this year against 24,770 departures in July last year).