Pune airport to get more passengers in summer

Pune airport to get more passengers in summer

PUNE: As per the summer schedule decided by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) across the country, the Pune airport will have 73 extra slots per week. The summer schedule, applicable from March to June, will see 1,193 slots for Pune airport. At present, there are 1,120 in accordance with the winter schedule.

After the school exams are over, the tourism season picks up the pace. Holidayers, including families, throng the popular destinations that are connected by air from Pune. The increased number of slots will ensure that the holiday season’s rush is cleared without hassles.

Various airlines had demanded 1,343 slots for Pune airport, however, only 1,120 were allotted.

According to AAI statistics, Pune passengers footfall has gone down in domestic as compared to last year. 

In 2019-20 (April to Dec) the airport recorded 62.21 lakh passengers footfall and in 2018-19 (April to Dec) it had 68.54 lakh passengers footfall.

The number of passengers dropped due to the number of flights which were not started as per schedule. Last year in April, the Jet Airways had suspended all its services. This had decreased the number of passengers. The slots of Jet Airways were vacant and none of the airlines had taken the initiative to start flights.

Recently, one of the premium airlines, Indigo, has announced to start two new flights from Pune to Chandigarh and Indore. Apart from this, more destinations have been connected from the Pune airport. Due to this, it is expected that the number of passengers in domestic will rise in the coming days.

“Pune airport has seen a percentage drop in domestic air traffic for various reasons. The main reasons have been the disruption in the market caused due discontinuation of flight operations by Jet Airways, suspension of Frankfurt flight by Lufthansa, airlines like Indigo, SpiceJet and GoAir affected due to the Airbus A320 Neo problems with their Pratt & Whitney engines, grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft due to technical issues with its flight control software that led to significant reduction in capacity on both international and domestic sectors at Pune,” said aviation expert and analyst Dhairyashil Vandekar.

“This resulted in reduced growth in traffic. The other reasons that affected the passenger traffic from Pune were the general economic slowdown, high fares charged by airlines in between and new airports like Shirdi, Nashik, Kolhapur, Belgaum, Dharwad reducing Pune airport’s passenger catchment area,” he said.

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