Mumbai: When the Covid-19 pandemic was hit two years ago, Mumbai Airport was the worst hit between the Indian airports because the passenger volume fell 76%.
However, in the past nine months, Mumbai airport has recovered in such a way that it is now ready to become a metro airport with the highest passenger traffic growth in the 2021-22 financial year.
Between April and December 2021, the volume of passengers and flights at Mumbai Airport grew 146% and 98%, each – the highest growth registered by the Indian Metro Airport during the period, according to the data distributed by the Indian Authority Airport (AAI).
It was not the problem in 2020.
On May 25 that year, the airport was opened back to domestic passengers after a two-month ban and then the trade union government limited airline operations.
Airports in Maharashtra, including Mumbai, are then covered in flight restrictions imposed by the state government too.
Although certain state governments have also placed flight limits in the early months of Postownown, Maharashtra restrictions continued for most of this year.
Between April 2020 and March 2021 later, Mumbai Airport only handled around 1 crore versus 4.5 crore passengers in 2019-20-a down 76%.
In comparison, passenger traffic fell around 63-66% in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
However, in the past year, restrictions placed by the state and central government have subsided.
“In 2021 it has truly been a beating of the game for the aviation industry,” said Mumbai spokesman International Airport Ltd.
(MIAL).
“Mumbai 1 airport terminal was reopened in October 2021 to meet the increased traffic …
the airport witnessed a record of passenger traffic more than 1 lakh in one day on December 2021, first since the pandemic,” officially added.
Other airports also felt well.
Given the large basic numbers, the growth of the percentage of Delhi airport is lower than Mumbai; In April-December 2021, Delhi handled 2.7 passenger crore versus 1.4 crore handled by Mumbai.
Similarly, certain non-metro airports with lower passenger traffic have a better percentage of growth.
For example, Goa recorded a growth of 208% in the period to handle 34 passenger lakh.
But there are no airports close to pre-covid numbers.
For example, Mumbai Airport handles 3.5 passenger crore in April-December 2019, 58% more than 1.4 crores since April 2021.