Covid-19 surge causes sharp decline in footfalls at Srinagar Airport

From 8,000 daily arrivals in April, numbers went down to 2,500 in May

Amid huge surge in Covid-19 cases, there has been a sharp decline in footfalls at the Srinagar International Airport in the first 10 days of this month.

From daily arrivals of 6,000 to 8,000 passengers in March and April, the number has reduced to just 2,200 to 2,500 this month, official data revealed.

“The number of daily flights have been reduced to just 21 to 23 from a peak of 40 to 45 in April. In the first week of May, we have even had days when there were just 14 flights,” said Director, Airports Authority of India, Srinagar, Santosh Dhoke.

In April, 2,429 travelers at the Srinagar Airport tested positive for Covid-19, making it the month with highest cases since the domestic flight operations resumed last year in May after remaining suspended for nearly two months in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

Tourism in Kashmir has taken a hit since August 5, 2019, when the special status of the erstwhile state was revoked and restrictions imposed on the movement of people and communication for months. The situation was then further aggravated by the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.

However, the reduction in the number of Covid-19 infections in Kashmir late last year and a few spells of snowfall in December and January led to tourists arriving in the valley in large numbers after 16 months, and both the number of flights and passenger arrivals saw huge rise till April.

The month with the highest number of flight and passenger arrivals at Srinagar Airport was April this year when a record 1,077 flights touched down at the tarmac carrying as many as 80,630 passengers. Prior to this, the onset of the Tulip festival had attracted tourists in large numbers and as a result, 1,064 flights carrying 1.10 lakh passengers arrived at the Srinagar Airport in March.

In the last week of March, the commencement of night flights had made the airport abuzz with activity as it was beneficial for both locals as well as tourists. Apart from Bengaluru-Srinagar direct flight, various airliners had also started direct flights between Srinagar and several other cities such as Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.