Guwahati: The aviation sector in the northeast has taken a big leap amid the Covid crisis with passenger and aircraft movements that register 85% recovery.
Shipping transportation has reached the pre-covid level, the official source said at the Airport Authority (AAA) ne Ne.
Just before the Covid-19 outbreak in India, while the number of aircraft movements in the airport was 7,173 in February 2020, the same reached 6,382 in October this year after months not.
During the same time, passenger footsteps, which have been dipped more than half to 3.13 lakh in July 2021, have returned to 7.04 lakh this October.
In February last year, the appropriate number was 8 lakh.
“The passenger movement and aircraft at NE airport have reached almost 85% compared to the pre-covid period movement,” said a senior AAI official.
Since July this year, air traffic in Ne has shown a constant increase despite the second wave of pandemic and in August and September the aviation sector in the region began to witness substantial growth.
While in August the movement of aircraft and passenger legs in NE was 5,493 and 4.56 lakh, the same in September further was upgraded to 5,872 and 5.21 lakh.
“With a gradual relaxation in the travel protocol related Covid-19 and the decision of the Ministry of Civil Aviation Union to restore domestic operations scheduled without capacity constraints, there have been significant improvements in aircraft movements and transfer of passengers in the northeast.
Air traffic movements return to normal “Official added.
On Thursday night, Chairman of Minister Himanta Buswa Sarma sounded flybig Perdana flight from Guwahati to Lilabari (Lakhimpur) at LGBI airport here.
Sarma called it a significant step to improve air connectivity in the region, which he said would give a new wing to the VISION PM Modi to change NE as a new growth machine.
The encouragement in passenger air connectivity to Lilabari will facilitate the communication with the northeastern part of Assam and even neighboring parts of Arunachal Pradesh.
AAI sources said that the settlement of the construction of Hollongi airport in Arunachal and the new integrated terminal building on Agartala and Guwahati was a big task in the region.
“Full efforts are being carried out to complete the work and operationalize the airport on August 15 next year.
This will have a rush hour capacity to handle 200 passengers,” officially added.
The airport, built in the state bordering China, holds strategic relevance and the foundation stone is placed by PM Modi.