SRINAGAR: With Kashmir witnessing a bumper tourist season, traffic at Srinagar airport has been soaring, too. A record 90 flights operated at the airport with 15,014 passengers on Monday. These included 45 arrivals and departures each, said Kuldeep Singh Rishi, Director, Srinagar airport. "It was the busiest day in our history," he said.
The previous record of handling 13,700 passengers in a day was made earlier this year. The tourist flow to Kashmir has increased after the opening of Asia's largest tulip garden in Srinagar on March 23. According to Singh, the airport is at present handling 2,400-2,600 passengers per hour, far beyond its capacity of handling 950 passengers per hour. The congestion at the airport is even causing some inconvenience to the travellers.
"The arrangements and facilities at Srinagar airport have been set up to handle 25 lakh passengers per year. But we are handling more than double the capacity," Singh said, and added that the infrastructure would be improved to managed the increasing load. "We have plans to construct a new terminal building at a cost of Rs 1,500 crore," he said.
The airport has appointed Landrum Brown to carry out a study of passenger flow to identify the problem areas and suggest remedial measures.