Coronavirus lockdown: Mumbai airport handled more than 2 lakh passengers since May 25

AAI-GVK group-operated Mumbai airport has handled a little over 2 lakh passengers through 1,744 flights since the resumption of domestic operations in a graded manner about a month ago, the private aerodrome operator said on Wednesday.

Operations of commercial passenger flights on local routes were allowed by the government from May 25 after being suspended for two months following a pan-India lockdown on March 25 in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. Post the resumption of domestic commercial passenger flight operations from May 25, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has catered to a total of 2,01,258 passengers till date, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said in a statement.

Of this, 1,40,878 passengers were on the outbound flights and the remaining 60,380 arriving ones, it said. During this period, the airport handled a total of 1,744 domestic flights, which were operated by 10 airlines, catering to a total of 34 sectors.

Mumbai-Delhi sector saw the highest number of passengers at 41,206 followed by Mumbai-Kolkata with 22,778 passengers, MIAL said adding Mumbai-Varanasi and Mumbai-Patna sectors also saw 18, 812 and 17,784 passengers, respectively during the period between May 25 and June 24.

The airport was initially allowed a total of 50 flights only, 25 departures and arrivals each per day by the Maharashtra government but it was later doubled to 100 flights per day. The 100 per cent increase in flight services at the Mumbai airport helped it add six more sectors --Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Raipur, Udaipur, Jabalpur, and Jalgaon -- in the schedule, it said.

Pre-COVID, Mumbai airport, which is the second busiest airport in the country, used to handle a little over 1,000 flight movements, including domestic, international and chartered services, per day. International operations, which were discontinued a few days before the suspension of commercial flight services on domestic routes on March 25, have not been permitted by the government yet.

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