Civil Enclave of Prayagraj has catered to 10 lakh passengers in less than 3 years

Prayagraj: In less than three years of becoming operational, the Civil Enclave (Prayagraj airport) located in Bamrauli area of Sangam city has achieved the distinction of catering to over ten lakh air passengers. The Civil Enclave at Prayagraj becomes the third airport of the state, after Lucknow and Varanasi, to achieve this milestone.
This Civil Enclave was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 16, 2018 before the Kumbh Mela.However, the new terminal was opened for passengers only on January 1, 2019. From that day till September 13 this year, the airport has seen the influx of 10,05,955 passengers. During this period, more than 12,000 flights operated from the airport. This also includes private chartered planes along with major air service providers.
Had it not been for the first and second waves of Covid-19, which resulted in a sudden shortfall of passengers arriving or leaving the city, the feat of crossing ten lakh passengers could have been achieved by the airport in January itself.
During the first wave of the pandemic, flight operations were badly affected at the airport because of the lockdown (from March 25 to May 24 2020). Likewise, flight operations were again adversely affected during the second Covid wave which led to fewer flights in May and June this year.
However, after fighting all odds, the airport achieved a significant milestone on September 8 when the number of air passengers crossed the ten lakh mark. By August 31, the number of passengers travelling through the airport had reached 9.91 lakh. On September 7, the number of passengers reached 9,99407. After this, on September 8, this figure crossed the ten lakh mark as 956 more passengers arrived at or departed from the airport. Till September 13, the total passenger movement at Prayagraj airport went up to 10.05 lakh.
A total of 11 flights are currently runnimg from Prayagraj airport to ten cities. Flight to Delhi and Bilaspur is being operated by Air India’s Alliance Air. Direct flights by private airline Indigo are being operated for Bangalore, Pune, Raipur, Gorakhpur, Delhi, Mumbai, Dehradun, Bhopal and Bhubaneshwar.
“It was the dream of our PM that every common man can afford air travel, and the state government is in the process of fulfilling this dream. Till the year 2017, only 25 flights were operating from four airports in the state, but now 73 flights are being operated regularly from eight airports including Prayagraj. Soon Jewar, Ayodhya, Chitrakoot, Aligarh, Moradabad airports will also be included in the air service map,” said minister of civil aviation in the state cabinet, Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi.