Coimbatore records 53% rise in air passengers

After a slump in the passenger traffic in May and June, when the second wave of Covid-19 was at its peak in the district, the city airport has bounced back to business by handling 99,000 passengers in August alone. This was a 53% increase in passenger traffic from July, when it handled 64,457 passengers. The airport had handled 96,529 domestic passengers and 2,291 international passengers last month, compared to 63,244 domestic passengers and 1,213 international passengers in July. The number of flights from the airport has also seen a sharp rise of 67% in August. However, the numbers, be they of passenger traffic or flights, are nowhere near the pre-Covid times. In August 2019, the airport had handled 2.32 lakh domestic passengers, 20,005 international travellers and 1,679 aircrafts. Aviation enthusiasts said they were happy to see the airport limping back to normalcy. It is to be noted that the domestic and international passenger traffic had touched a low of 23,555 and 829, respectively, in May. Travel agents said 40% of the domestic passengers had used the airport to fly to Chennai, while the remaining were headed to Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi and Hyderabad. In a new trend, many guest workers too have started taking flights from the city to their native places and back. Ashish Kanted, proprietor of Ashish Travels, said presently the airport was mostly used by the business community, followed by the guest workers and leisure travellers. “Earlier, guest workers mainly used trains to commute to their hometowns and back. In the absence of trains, some of them are taking flights with the employer bearing a large chunk of the airfare. Leisure travel has also started picking up and the focus is on domestic places, as it isn’t easy to visit destinations abroad.” City airport director S Senthil Valavan said the people were more confident to fly now as the Airport Authority of India had put in place all the safety protocols. “All the airport employees have taken the first dose of vaccine and many of them are fully vaccinated. We have a swab collection facility for Covid-19 testing as well for the convenience of travellers. Those travelling to Gulf countries are finding it useful.”