Footfalls increasing at AP airports despite COVID threat

Tirupati: After being crippled by Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, almost all airports in Andhra Pradesh are getting back on their feet, with domestic passenger footfalls significantly increasing every month.

Going by Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) traffic report, all six airports in AP – Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Rajahmundry, Cuddapah and Kurnool, have witnessed better patronage last month with nearly 2,02,717 passengers using the domestic flight services. This is against 1,21,646 and 79,000 passenger footfalls in June and May this year.

As per AAI data, 2,808 flights have been operated to and from these six airports in July, as against 1,850 and 1,667 aircrafts movements in June and May this year. In all, Vizag airport stood first in operation of flights and passenger load compared to other airports in the state, including Vijayawada and Tirupati international airports.

As many as 908 flights operated to and from Vizag airport in July, compared to Vijayawada 616, Rajamahendravaram 562, Tirupati 508, Cuddapah 104 and Kurnool 110. In June and May, 592 and 652 flights had operated to and from Vizag, followed by 394 and 323 from Vijayawada, 478 and 316 from Rajamahendravaram, 242 and 228 from Tirupati, 25 and 64 from Cuddapah, and 98 and 84 from Kurnool.

Around this time last month, 1,02,577 passengers used domestic flight services from Vizag airport, 39,901 from Vijayawada; 19,682 from Rajamahendravaram; 36,137 from Tirupati; 1,859 from Cuddapah and 2,562 from Kurnool. In June, these airports – in the same order – witnessed 63,634; 25,149; 13,226; 16,947; 627; 2,063 passenger footfalls respectively. In May, they witnessed 44,904; 16,228; 9,061; 6,698; 650 and 1,459 passenger footfalls.

According to sources, most passengers arriving at these airports had been from Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati, Lucknow, Varanasi and Bhubaneswar.

Airports are gradually recovering with fall in Covid-19 cases. Easing of curbs by most states has led to more people taking to the skies. Among all, Tirupati airport recorded a significant growth in both passenger footfalls and aircraft movements. Compared to June, Tirupati airport registered 113.2 percent increase in passenger footfalls and 109.9 percent increase in flight movements during July.