Need to regularize air services; attach new destinations

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, March 27:

Despite the Corona crisis hampering the domestic air services in the country, the passengers' load during the previous year (2021) has recorded more than two lakh travelling from Chikalthana Airport.

Presently, only Air India and Indigo Airlines are operating flights for Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. However, the earlier existing air services for Bengaluru and Ahmedabad have not yet started.

During the year 2021, 1,11,932 total passengers fled between Aurangabad and Delhi, 93,017 passengers fled to Mumbai and 30,161 passengers fled to Hyderabad.

A total of 850 tons of cargo was ferried from Aurangabad during the year 2021. The highest cargo of 652 tons was from Delhi, followed by 163 tons from Mumbai and 26 tons from Bangalore.

In 2022, more than 40,000 passengers travelled from and to Chikalthana Airport in January and February.

Similarly, connecting flights for the city passengers are available for various cities from Mumbai and Delhi. In the past year, 1241 city passengers availed the connecting flight service to Chennai, 447 to Kolkotta, 342 to Jaipur and 3 to Vadodara.

As the corona crisis has receded, the city passengers are demanding to regularize the flights for Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. Several people visit Bengaluru for educational, business purposes while people from Bengaluru are coming to Aurangabad. The Ahmedabad service was convenient for the city traders travelling for business purposes. Now, there has been a demand from the air passengers to regularize both these flights. Similarly, there has been a demand for starting flights for Indore, Pune and Nagpur as well.

Aviation expert Akshay Chabukswar opined that after the corona crisis several restrictions have been withdrawn. The flights are being regularized gradually. Still, it is important that the earlier flights should be regularized soon and new flights for the new destinations should be started.

Box.....

Passengers traveled (to and from) Chikalthana Airport in 2021 (Jan to Dec)

Delhi - 1,11,932

Mumbai - 93,017

Hyderabad - 30,161

Bengaluru - 6,941

Ahmedabad - 4,167

Box---

Passengers travelled (to and from) Chikalthana Airport in 2022

January - 19,031

February - 21,979