After over 2 months, 100 take-offs from Kolkata twice in July

KOLKATA: The number of departing flights from Kolkata airport has touched the 100-mark twice this month after a gap of nearly three months, courtesy a nod from Centre to increase the percentage of flights in a sector as well as an exponential rise in domestic business and family travel.
On July 23, 101 flights departed from Kolkata with 9,869 passengers, clocking a net movement of 19,600-odd passengers. This was for the second time in this month that the number of departing flights in a day crossed 100 since April 30 when 113 flights had departed from Kolkata. On July 16, 108 flights had departed from Kolkata, carrying 11,656 passengers — a significant jump due to Eid in the following week.
“These are good signs for the airport as well as the aviation industry. We have been informed that the number of flights will increase further in the coming days and we have been making adequate changes to handle the excess passengers. However, utmost stress is being given on sanitization and cleaning along with the maintenance of social distancing,” said a senior official of the Kolkata airport. Earlier this month, the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) increased the capacity of domestic flights to 65% from 50% of pre-Covid times. The order dated July 5 reads: “After a review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations viz-a-viz passenger demand for air travel in terms of the purpose specified in the initial order no 01/2020 dated 21.05.2020… 50% capacity may be read as 65% capacity.”

Airline officials said that the current number is still lower than the allotted percentage of flights by the MoCA and that more flights will be added over the next one week.
“The allotted quota is still unutilized and by next week, there can be a rise of anything between 25 to 30 departing flights per day at the airport as compared with this week,” said an airline official in Kolkata.
TOI had reported on July 9 how the decline in Covid cases, the easing of restrictions and the removal of mandatory RT-PCR tests by several states helped in revival of traffic at Kolkata airport after two difficult months when both arrival and departure figures had come down to a trickle. From less than 6,000 passengers a day in May end, the number has gone up to around 20,000 a day since the beginning of this month.