Rise in international passengers from Chandigarh airport: Officials

It started picking up in October when the number rose to 7,626. The number of international passengers in November and December were 12,127 and 12,797 respectively.

Air India was the first firm to start international flight operations from Chandigarh to Abu Dhabi. In October last year, Indigo Airlines also started its daily flight to Dubai.

According to an AAI official, there has been an exponential domestic traffic growth of the Chandigarh airport in 10 years. In 2006-2007, the traffic was 1.54 lakh while in 2015-16, the total number reached 15.34 lakh.

“It is a good sign that the traffic is increasing. It will attract more operators to start flights from this airport,” said Chandigarh Airport CEO Sunil Dutt.

Not only international traffic, domestic traffic has also witnessed a rise.

From April to December 2015-16, the total number of passengers at the airport was 11,58,111, while as the traffic for 2016-17 for the same period was 12,82,243, an increase of 1,24,132 compared to previous year.

About last year’s month-wise domestic traffic, the airport statistics point out that October and November were the busiest months and recorded highest number of traffic. The highest number of passengers who traveled from the airport were in October and November.

According to the airport authorities, when the airport had started its operation in 2006, only three flights used to operate per day. “The number of flights operating daily from the airport is more than 24,” said the official.

In September 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the new terminal known as Chandigarh International Airport located in Mohali.

It was constructed at a cost of Rs 1,400 crore. Several new destinations have been added by the airlines operating at the airport.

Recently, Air India reintroduced its flight service from Chandigarh to Leh and also two new direct flights to Pune and Mumbai.

National Carrier Air India(AI) recently said that they are planning to start direct flights to Bangkok and Singapore from Chandigarh in April or May. Jet Airways also planning to start a daily flight from Chandigarh International Airport to Abu Dhabi (AUH) this year.