Hyderabad: RGIA says firmly on revival trajectory

Hyderabad: Witnessing a steady increase in the number of passengers and air traffic, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) is leading the revival of the aviation sector in the country post the Covid-induced lockdown.

The daily passenger footfall at RGIA has gone up over six times and the Air traffic Movement (ATM) over five times since the re-commencement of domestic operations from May 15.

With the Central and State governments relaxing the quarantine norms under Unlock 4.0 and Unlock 5.0, there has been a significant jump in the passenger footfall, sources at the airport said.

The RGIA has handled over 1.2 million domestic passengers from the day of re-commencement till September 30. Over 13,500 domestic flights were handled during the period. Sources say the growth rate of RGIA post re-commencement has been impressive, compared to other airports.

In the first few weeks post re-commencement of domestic operations after a gap of two months, the daily passenger footfall was 3,000, but the same surged to over 20,000 in September.

The airport has also seen an uptick in ATM from about 40 daily in the first few weeks of the re-start, to over 230 domestic flights daily. The RGIA regained its 52 destinations out of 55 before Covid, thus restoring about 95 per cent domestic connectivity till August.

It was handling 550 ATMs and about 60,000 passengers daily before the Covid-induced lockdown came into effect in March.

With a new domestic destination - Jagdalpur in Chhatisgarh from September 21, RGIA is now connected to 53 destinations in the domestic sector. Nagpur, Mangalore, Kozhidode/Calicut and Jabalpur are the latest destinations which re-commenced in the last four weeks.