Lohegaon airport closure impacts footfall at Kolhapur, Shirdi airports
Daily footfall at Shirdi and Kolhapur airports is reaching 500 people and we have 12 flights operating from Kolhapur (six arrival and six departure). There is a slight impact of footfall due to Pune’s airport closure
PUNE Passenger footfall has gone up at Shirdi and Kolhapur airports, with Lohegaon airport in Pune closed for 14 days.
“Daily footfall is reaching 500 people and we have 12 flights operating from Kolhapur (six arrival and six departure). There is a slight impact of footfall due to Pune’s airport closure,” said Kamal Kumar Kataria, Kolhapur airport director.
The official handle of Kolhapur airport tweeted: “KolhapurAirport is glad to share that KLH Apt is steadily moving towards normalcy. Today highest ever single day figure load post second wave at Kolhapur Airport - Total 592 PAXs (306ARR+286DEP) travelled on 10 flights”.
Swapnil Kadam who travelled to Kolhapur to catch a flight said, “Tickets were not available from Mumbai to Chennai, but when I tried Kolhapur, I managed to get the a ticket.”
“Although the journey cost increased, I managed to reach Chennai as per me schedule,” said Prassana Pawar, a resident of Balewadi.
Deepak Kapoor, vice-chairman and MD of Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) tweeted: “We got total 8 flights (4 arr n 4 dep) today at Shirdi Airport. All with no hitches. With the support of our esteemed passengers ann increasing vaccinations, we aim to aggressively pursue the target of 32 flights (16 arrivals and 16 deps) as achieved pre-Covid in Feb 2020”.
Shirdi airport which faced visibility problems after starting on October 10, has been functioning since October 17.
The airport is getting a huge crowd from Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad, people visiting the Shirdi Sai Baba.
Ravi Gore from Hadapsar is another flyer who opted for Kolhapur instead of Mumbai, after his flight from Pune got cancelled.
“I had a wedding to attend in Kolhapur and going back to Mumbai does not make a sense so I fly out from Kolhapur to Chennai. However, tickets rates were more than Mumbai.”