VISAKHAPATNAM: Visakhapatnam International Airport on Saturday recorded one fourth of passenger footfalls in the Southern Region. The airport recorded 6,004 footfalls on Saturday, the highest since lockdown in a single day.
Airport Director Raj Kishore said the total footfalls in all airports of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) put together in the Southern Region is about 26,200, while Vizag alone recorded almost one fourth of the passenger traffic. The airport, which began operations with five arrivals and five departures after resumption of air services post lockdown, is now witnessing 42 flight movements.
While 3,109 passengers arrived at the airport, 2,895 departed from it. It is a positive sign that the passenger traffic is aggressive in Vizag. Going by the present strength, it looks like the pre-lockdown traffic will be reached even before March, he said.
New flight from Dec 25
Meanwhile, SpiceJet has announced a new flight from Visakhapatnam to Hyderabad from December 25. The daily flight will depart from Hyderabad at 10.30 am and arrive in Vizag at 12.30 pm. In the return direction, it will leave Vizag at 1 pm and land in Hyderabad at 2 pm.
The Director said SpiceJet resumed operations from Vizag on December 6 with two flights to Bengaluru and one flight to Kolkata. IndiGo also launched a direct flight to Vijayawada from December 1. With the addition of SpiceJet flight to Hyderabad from Vizag, the number of flight movements will go up to 44—22 arrivals and 22 departures.
The airport has registered a 16 per cent rise in passenger traffic in November with almost 1.4 lakh footfalls. The airport recorded 7,000 footfalls in May, 39,000 in June, 42,000 in July, 60,000 in August, 83,000 in September, 1.2 lakh in October and 1.4 lakh in November, the Director added.