Strong Domestic & International Passenger Growth for Amritsar Airport in October 2017

Amritsar, Dec. 14 (Punjab Post Bureau) – For the first time, total monthly traffic at Sri Guru Das Jee (SGRDJ) International Airport, Amritsar breached the two-lakh international and domestic passengers mark. This landmark was achieved in the month of October 2017, said Sameep Singh Gumtala, Secretary Overseas Affairs for Amritsar Vikas Manch, an NGO lobbying for flights from the Airport. Domestic air traffic rose nearly 73.7% in October 2017 in comparison to the same month in 2016. According to the monthly data released by the Airport Authority of India for Indian airports on its website, a total of 159,311 domestic passengers travelled to/from Amritsar in Oct 2017, up from 91,706 in Oct 2016, a year earlier. Traffic between Amritsar-Delhi was the highest with 113,546 passengers followed by Mumbai with 29,376 passengers.

Domestic passengers from the airport from April-October 2017 in financial year 2017-2018were 868,162 as against 567,738 during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering a growth of 52.9%, shows the monthly domestic traffic report. This increaseis due to the addition of Delhi, Mumbai, Jammu, Srinagar, and Bengaluru flights by Indigo and Vistara in 2017, which also increased the total number of aircraft movements by 73.1%.

International passengers traffic also rose by 15.5% in October with 52,691 passengers, up from 45,606 a year earlier in Oct 2016. Even though, no new international flight has started from the Airport in 2017, this rise is due to the increase in passenger load on existing flights,proving that more people nowfly to/from Amritsar Airport. Number of international passengers during April-October 2017 has increased to 334,256 as against 289,758 during the corresponding period of previous year, thereby registering a double-digit growth of 15.4%.

Gumtala said that the increase in domestic passengers proves the potential for international flights from the Airport. More than 50% of these domestic passengers between Amritsar-Delhi fly to/from international destinations via Delhi.Going by the passenger growth trend for the financial year and the planned capacity expansion by airlines during the second half of the year, it remains only a matter of time that the total passenger traffic this year at the airport will cross the landmark of 20-lac passengers for the first time, said Gumtala.

Air India recently announced start of twice a week Amritsar-Birmingham direct flight in early 2018. Thai Airways, Indigo and Air Asia are other airlines that are exploring starting of international flights. Many other international carriers including Fly Dubai, Turkish Airways are willing to start flights to Amritsar but not able to do so due to the non-renewal of old bilateral air service agreements that do not allow them to start flights to Amritsar Airport.