Kolkata: Kolkata airport registered its highest post-pandemic monthly passenger traffic this Dec, clocking a footfall of 20.2 lakh passengers. This was significantly more than last Dec's 18.5 lakh footfall and marginally short of the Dec 2019 figure, which was the highest ever at 21 lakh passengers.
TOI wrote about how the airport earlier registered its highest post-pandemic passenger traffic in Oct as well, driven by the convergence of festivals including Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Diwali, and Bhai Phonta. During that festive month, the airport handled around 19.2 lakh passengers. However, the Dec 2024 figures surpassed the Durga Puja month figures by a clear margin.
"Since the beginning of the month, there has been a consistent flow of travellers passing through the airport, with daily passenger numbers exceeding 60,000 nearly every day of the week. We have deployed additional airport staff and CISF personnel for faster check-in and security check procedures and have also increased the frequency of cleaning the washrooms and the seating spaces in the security hold area to ensure passengers are not inconvenienced," said a senior official of Kolkata airport.
The official added that apart from deploying extra staff, during peak hours DigiYatra lanes were also utilised for manual entry to facilitate faster processing. According to official figures, the airport served 18.5 lakh passengers in Dec 2023.
The COVID-affected years of 2020 and 2021 saw significantly reduced numbers of 10.5 lakh and 14.6 lakh respectively. While numbers increased to 17 lakh in 2022 following the removal of travel restrictions, they haven't yet reached 2019 levels, when the airport had 21 lakh passengers transiting through it.
This Dec, domestic arrivals totalled 9.1 lakh while departures were 9 lakh. International traffic comprised 1.2 lakh incoming passengers and approximately 1.1 lakh outbound travellers. Oct 22 recorded the highest single-day traffic with 69,560 passengers, while the daily average for the month stood at 65,091 passengers. Not a single day went by when the footfall count dropped below 60,000 passengers.
TOI wrote about how there was a rush of tourists this festive season with thousands leaving Kolkata daily for traditional holiday hotspots like Kashmir, Goa, Andamans, and Himachal.
The drop in Metro-to-Metro airfares during the festive week between Christmas and New Year also propelled the rush of fliers heading back home from different cities and abroad.
"The trend of high traffic has been continuing since the month before Durga Puja. It's a positive sign for the aviation and tourism industry overall. The addition of new flights to and from multiple sectors has also led to the drop in airfares, which in turn has encouraged more travellers to opt for flights over other means of transport," said Anil Punjabi, national committee member of Travel Agents Federation of India (East).
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