Other airlines fill in the void left by Jet Airways; flier footfall increases

The daily passenger footfall — which had dropped to 95,000 on April 18 — increased to 1,17,000 this week.

Daily passenger numbers at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), which had dropped by 27% after Jet Airways suspended operations, is picking up after the addition of new flights by low-cost carriers (LCC).

Daily passenger numbers at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), which had dropped by 27% after Jet Airways suspended operations, is picking up after the addition of new flights by low-cost carriers (LCC).

The daily passenger footfall — which had dropped to 95,000 on April 18 — increased to 1,17,000 this week. The country’s second busiest airport used to handle 1,30,000 passengers every day until Jet Airways shut down all operations last month.

Other airlines stepped in to fill the seat crunch in the peak summer travel period. Vistara added 20 flights and other LCCs added a total of 67 new daily flights; (SpiceJet, 47; IndiGo, 10; and AirAsia, 10) from Mumbai. IndiGo, which used the old terminal (T1) as its hub has started operating from T2. Earlier, the CSMIA would witness an average of 950 flight movements, which dipped to 650 services in April. The number has now increased to 730 flights, revealed data from Airports Authority of India. Mumbai airport spokesperson was not available for comment.

IndiGo started 10 new flights from Mumbai on April 15 and may add 10 more from Sunday.

Ajay Prakash, ex-president of Travel Agents Association of India and CEO of Nomad Travels, said, “Air fares are higher than usual but have dropped from the 40% increase to 15% hike. This happened owing to the addition of new flights by a few airlines.”