Rise in domestic passenger traffic at Mangaluru airport

With the re-opening of various states, the domestic passenger traffic from Mangalore International Airport (MIA) has shown a steady rise in the month of August as compared to July.

The latest data showed that 26,067 international passengers landed at MIA in August as compared to 18,557 departures in July, thus showing a jump of 40.5%.

Similarly, 26,732 passengers arrived in August in MIA from domestic destinations as compared to 19,744 passengers in July, a rise of 35.4%.

Industry sources say with the easing of travel curbs within India and abroad, various airlines are re-starting flights from Mangalore International Airport to various destinations, which is the main reason for the healthy rise in traffic.

The traffic is expected to increase manifold in the coming months due to the start of the festival season beginning September 10.

While Air India has increased the frequency of its flights to Mumbai and Coimbatore daily, its subsidiary, Air India Express has re-started flights to various cities in the Middle East in August.

Indigo has re-started its flights to Sharjah after the UAE government allowed travel to the country. Indigo has also started an additional flight to Hyderabad as traffic picked up substantially across India. Similarly, Air India Express re-started its flights to Abu Dhabi as passengers’ flow improved from MIA, said a release.

The passenger flow is expected to improve in the coming weeks as more destinations re-open in the Middle East with the launch of Rapid RT-PCR facilities. The Rapid RT-PCR facility has been started by the MIA in association with Apollo Diagnostics. As per the UAE government health requirements, each passenger must get a negative RT-PCR report at the airport six hours depending upon destination prior to boarding the aircraft.

The MIA has undertaken various safety measures and has implemented numerous SOPs, including the preventive measures laid down by the Government to safeguard the passenger's well-being and curb the spread of the virus, the release added.