Aircraft movements down 96% at Ahmedabad airport

AHMEDABAD: Due to the lockdown and restrictions imposed on air travel, the movement of domestic flights at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport in Ahmedabad has declined by 96%. According to data by Airports Authority of India (AAI), some 363 domestic passenger aircraft movements were registered at the city airport in April-May this year, as against 10,506 movements recorded last year.
“Commercial aircraft movements resumed from May 25 . No domestic passenger flights operated from the airport in the wake of the restrictions imposed by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Thus, the aircraft movements are bound to be slow,” said a source.
Even though the aircraft movements resumed, passenger footfalls have drastically fallen . AAI data suggests that against 18.6 lakh domestic passenger footfall handled at SVPI airport in April-May 2019, barely 19,445 passengers were recorded during the same period this year. Airline sources confirmed that passenger footfall has remained very low even after flights resumed operations. “Flights have been operating at 50% seating capacity or even lesser. People arereluctant to travel . In fact, due to low passenger turnout, several flights are forced to cancel in the last minute,” revealed a source.
Manish Sharma, secretary, Travel Agents’ Federation of India (TAFI) – Gujarat, said, “Corporates have imposed restrictions on travel of employees except for extreme urgencies. Moreover, leisure travel has also been impacted leading to a lower passenger footfall .”