Kolkata airport reaches post-pandemic peak, handles 30,452 passengers

KOLKATA: The city airport passed a new milestone in its journey back to normal operations when it crossed the 30,000-flyer mark for the first time since restarting services post lockdown. The airport on Sunday catered to 30,452 passengers, up from the previous high of 27,305 flyers on September 10.
The Covid season record high followed the lowest passenger figures in over a decade-and-a-half on Saturday, when only three flights arrived in and departed Kolkata and the airport handled barely 535 flyers. The previous day witnessed no passenger as Bengal was under total lockdown on Friday.

Nearly all flights flying in and out of Kolkata operated to capacity on Sunday. Currently, 40% pre-pandemic flights are operational. On Sunday, 103 flights took off from Kolkata, while the flight count used to be 230 a day before the lockdown.
Airline officials said the loads were particularly high as no one had been able to travel to Kolkata for two days. In addition, flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune and Nagpur that are allowed to operate to Kolkata only three times a week arrived in Kolkata on Sunday. “On Sunday, 14,293 passengers landed in Kolkata by 101 flights, while 16,159 people took off on 103 flights. To get past the 40,000 mark, more flights will have to operate,” an airport official said.
The first time the passenger count went past the 20,000-mark this season was in September itself when Kolkata airport recorded a footfall of 25,549 passengers on September 1, the first day the ban on operations from six “Covid hotspot” cities was relaxed and the flight count shot up from 55 to 92. That day, 11,916 passengers had arrived by 92 flights and 13,633 passengers departed by 93 flights.
The 10,000-mark was crossed three months prior to that on June 1, when 7,892 passengers had arrived by 58 flights and 6,038 passengers had flown out by 59 flights. That was when the initial embargo on flights to Kolkata was lifted and the flight count had jumped from 18 to 59.
For the airport, it’s almost been a roller coaster ride since operations resumed post lockdown on May 28. On nine days, no flight operated out of Kolkata airport due to state-wide lockdown. Also, the state had banned flights from six cities from July 6 as a measure against the spread of Covid-19 from high incidence states Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The embargo was eased from September 1, with flights being permitted three times a week.
In addition, international flights were banned from July 1. The ban was lifted on August 8 but only charter flights have been allowed since. On Wednesday the first Vande Bharat flight will land in Kolkata after over two-and-a-half months. A Vande Bharat flight did fly in and out of the city on Saturday, but it was for a technical halt.