Mumbai: Indian airlines and airports incurred an estimated loss of Rs 19,564 crore and Rs 5,116 crore, respectively, in 2020-21 due to severe disruption accused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Scheduled domestic flights were suspended in India from March 25, 2020 to May 24, 2020, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, with the incidence of new Covid cases declining every day in the country, life is beginning to return to normal. Once the international scheduled airline flights recommence, the Mumbai airport is likely to handle over 1,000 flights on a regular basis in the coming months, according to aviation sources.
With the restoration of 100% capacity for domestic flights by the civil aviation ministry from October 18, experts believe that the move will allow airlines to serve a wider market and in turn, will encourage air travel further. More travel means more flights, more seats and more jobs going forward but the hiring pattern will be different than seen in the market before the pandemic, say industry experts.
In 2018, prior to the Covid pandemic, the Mumbai airport handled roughly 1000 aircraft movements a day. As all traffic going through Mumbai airport uses a single runway, it made the Mumbai airport the busiest single-runway operation in the world, second only to London-Gatwick airport.
Aside from aircraft movements, the footfall at the Mumbai airport is returning to pre-Covid times. During the nine-day Navratri festival last year, 665,985 passengers flew in and out of the airport between October 7 and October 15. Over 317,000 of them arrived at the airport and 348,740 departed it.
As many as 729,240 passengers flew in and out of the airport during the Ganpati festivities between September 5 and September 19.
At present, the official capacity of the Mumbai airport main runway is 46 flight movements (arrivals, departures) per hour. But in 2018, the airport had handled well over 50 flights per hour during peak hours, especially on days the traffic crossed the 1,000 mark. In the coming months, the airport is likely to handle similar volumes of flights, as the Navi Mumbai airport will take some years to be commissioned.
