Air passengers demand new flights connectivity for city

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, Jan 31:

Although the air passengers are giving an overwhelming response to all the air services from the city, they have to wait for air connectivity to various destinations in the country. The experts opined that the potential of Aurangabad Airport is yet to be explored fully.

The data of passenger footfall and cargo loads of Aurangabad in the past says a lot of potential aspects of the city. Aurangabad Airport has given a good response to multiple airlines flying multiple flights to different sectors from Aurangabad in the past. After the prime destinations Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, other potential sectors from Aurangabad are Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Nagpur, and other destinations in the country.

Unlike many tourism destinations, the passenger traffic of Before lockdown Aurangabad had 4-6 daily turboprops and Airbus flights to Hyderabad, 2 to Bengaluru and Ahmedabad each, 5 to Delhi, and 4 to Mumbai. All these flights were going almost full, Says the member of Aurangabad Air Connectivity - Aviation Group Akshay Chabukswar.

Covid badly impacted the flight connectivity of Aurangabad in 2020. After the first Covid wave, airlines tried different permutations of sectors like non-stop Ahmedabad flight, Kolkata flight via Mumbai, Chennai flight via Bengaluru from Aurangabad. However, after that, the second wave also impacted badly and this resulted in the delayed resumption of Bengaluru and Ahmedabad flights from Aurangabad.

The Airport sources said the Covid had impacted the passengers' load but now the passengers are giving a good response to the available air services from the city. The airlines will increase the flights to various destinations soon.

In the year 2019, a total of 3,06,011 passengers travelled from Aurangabad Airport, and 915 tons of Cargo were transported. In the year 2020, the passenger count reduced to 1,97,350 but the Cargo data was almost unchanged (915 tons). Last year in 2021, the passenger data increased to 2,57,454 and the Cargo data also increased to 934, which is more than that in 2019.

Presently, we are concentrating on the restoration of the existing flights. We are waiting for the government’s decision on the measures to be taken to ease the covid restrictions. First, the administration should start the monuments which will boost the tourists' influx in the city. We are expecting that the situation will be back to complete normalcy by March. Similarly, talks are also going on with the airlines for starting services to the new destinations from the city.

- Sunil Kothari, Chairman, Civil Aviation Committee, Aurangabad Tourism Development Foundation.