Passenger traffic at airport reaches all-time high

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 14

For the first time, the total monthly traffic of passengers, international and domestic, at Sri Guru Das ji International Airport here has crossed the two-lakh mark. As per the data released by the Airport Authority of India, the domestic air traffic at the Amritsar airport rose by 73.7 per cent in October 2017 as compared to the corresponding period in 2016.

As per the data, a total of 1,59,311 domestic passengers travelled (to and from) the Amritsar airport in October this year as compared to 91,706 passengers in October last year. The international passengers’ traffic in the same period has increased by 15.5 per cent. The data reveals that it has gone up to 52,691 passengers from 45,606 for October.

Sameep Singh Gumtala, secretary, Overseas Affairs for the Amritsar Vikas Manch, an NGO lobbying for more flights from the airport, said, “No international flights were added in 2017 and the increase is recorded on earlier running flights.”

He said on the other hand, the increase in domestic passengers is attributed to the addition of Delhi, Mumbai, Jammu, Srinagar, and Bengaluru flights by Indigo and Vistara earlier this year.

Gumtala said an analysis of the data from the number of international passengers from April to October this year had also increased to 3,34,256 from 2,89,758 during the corresponding period in the previous year.

The Amritsar Vikas Manch leader said for the first time in history, the yearly passenger traffic was expected to cross 20 lakh passengers. “The AVM has been advocating more international and domestic connectivity. The recently increased domestic flights have also propelled the increase in the traffic of international passengers, as more people tend to fly to and from Amritsar.” He said efforts of the AVM and other organisations had borne fruit as Air India recently announced to start a twice a week Amritsar-Birmingham direct flight in early 2018. He added that as Thai Airways, Indigo and Air Asia were exploring starting of international flights it would boost the international air connectivity of the holy city.