A week on, RGIA flight operations almost triple

Hyderabad: A week after airports across India resumed operations, the city’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) saw flight services increase by almost three times on Monday. From only 39 connections on Day 1, air traffic jumped to 110 — 55 arrivals and 55 departures — to and from the city, with airlines either adding new sectors or more flights on certain routes.
Monday saw more flights between Hyderabad and metro cities such as Kolkata, New Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru even as destinations such as Pune, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Cochin, Ranchi, Kolhapur, Mysore returned to the charts. Connections to Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Kadapa, in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, too operated from RGIA.
“We are only going slow on increasing connectivity to Mumbai and other destinations in Maharashtra, at the moment. Most other sectors are picking up pace steadily,” said an official of a major private airline adding that most flights are reporting between 45% and 55% occupancy. On some routes such as Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru, the traffic load is higher — up to 70% or more. “We are hoping to ramp up our connections in the future, as quarantine rules are eased out in some states,” said another airline official.
The increase in connectivity, predictably, led to a substantial rise in footfall at the Hyderabad airport. From just about 3,000 passengers on May 25, the count jumped to over 10,000 on Monday. Prior to the lockdown, the city facility clocked 50,000 movements (on an average) per day.
But while domestic services begin to normalise, there is still no clarity over resumption of international services. In fact, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation recently announced that all overseas connections will remain suspended till June 3. The move has left hundreds of people, stranded in the city, worried — most of those with jobs in other countries.