Mumbai: Unlike other Metros, Mumbai with the airport runway that is stalled offers a direct choice of direct flights to several Tier-II, pre-pandemic cities.
With new jobs, travel and recreation in the past year, flights to non-metro have become increasingly prominent on the city airport radar.
Until July this year, 64% of passengers passed through Mumbai airport traveled to or returned from non-metro on direct flights, said Mumbai spokesman International Airport Ltd (MIAL).
After the pause in the domestic trip caused by the second wave in the second Covid-19 in the summer, the non-metro route returned this month with the launch of four weekly direct flights from Mumbai to Bareilly and resettlement of direct flights 18 weekly to Tier -II in Ajmer , Porbandar, Tirupati and Vishakhapatnam.
Last month, Gwalior had joined the direct flight list of Mumbai (MIAL) spokesman.
These include recreational travelers and passengers flying between homes and city works they are as from three non-metro goals outside Mumbai during this period-cave, Ahmedabad, and Varanasi.
But the metro airport is a traffic ginger with a whole three domestic destinations outside Mumbai to Delhi, Goa and Bengaluru.
Kapil Kaul of Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Flight Consultant Company said, “The non-metro route to METRO increasingly sees more flight deployments during Covid.
Before Covid, flight operations from Mumbai, especially for non-metro were significantly limited due to lack Capacity.
“The surge in demand for flights to non-metro began last year after domestic flights began again on May 25 following a ban on two months.
On a new trip, business trips can be ignored, Metro to Metro Travel fell because flights packed migrants escape from their cities at their level in Tier-Iis aligning domestic air traffic patterns.
According to the Airport Statistics Authority India, the aim of Tier-II recovered faster, they registered a decline in passenger traffic compared to the Metro at the last fiscal end.
For example, while Mumbai Airport saw a 71% decline in passenger traffic by 2020-21 compared to the previous year, the appropriate decline was 57% for Lucknow, 51% for Ranchi and Raipur, 48% for Patna, 40%, 25% for Gorakhpur, 13% for Pathankot, and so on.
Kaul said, “We will see more operations for non-metros because Mumbai airport now has available capacities and airlines such as Indigo want to expand their network.” Before to Covid, Lone Runway Airport Mumbai handles around 950 flights in 24 hours.
Today, he handles an average of 300 flights, less than a third of his capacity.
The official low-cost airline said, “The regional connectivity scheme never really took off in Mumbai because of the airport slot constraints.
The people bound to non-metro must transit through Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata etc.
without direct flights to small cities .
But Covid has changed it, at least for now.
“