CHENNAI: The passenger traffic at Chennai airport has more than doubled between August and November last year.
The domestic and international passenger movement has increased from 2.52lakh passengers to 6.22lakh in the four months.
The combined traffic figure was hovering around 1.5lakh in June and July and doubled in August.
A substantial number of passengers are for domestic sectors as flight operations have been increased to around 123 a day.
Domestic passenger numbers increased from 2.32lakh in August to 5.56lakh in November. The number is expected to increase in December and January as more flights are operating, especially to small towns like Belagavi, Mysuru and a few other destinations, said an airport official.
The airport handled around 23,000 domestic passengers a day as on January 6. The arrivals are more at 12,665 passengers while the departures remain low at 11,028.
“The domestic numbers are bound to increase as there is no cap on arrivals and departures per day unlike before. Airlines have started to increase frequency and resume flights on routes based on the demand. TruJet is flying Udan sectors from Chennai to Salem, Cuddapah and Mysore while IndiGo is flying direct flights to Belagavi,” he added.
In spite of restrictions international passenger traffic too has increased from 19,000 in August to 65,000 in November. In June, only 10,464 passengers travelled internationally, most of them arriving by evacuation flights. International flights are not likely to increase any further as there are restrictions on the number of flights and routes after a new strain of Covid-19 was found in the UK. Flights to the UK are going to resume temporarily and there is no guarantee that the schedule will continue.
Though there have been demands for starting flights under the ‘air bubble’ to Australia, Japan, Singapore, the government is not keen.