Mumbai: With festival euphoria taking over India ahead of the New Year, passenger traffic is showing an uptick with people travelling to celebrate in major metros. Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) is the world’s busiest single crossover runway airport.
On Saturday, Dec 10, it clocked the highest number of passengers in a single day since the pandemic struck air travel globally. At 1,50,988 passengers, it was the third busiest day ever. This was 97% of 1,56,392 passengers handled on Dec 21, 2018, and 98% of 1,52,562 handled on Dec 22, 2017.
The domestic passenger traffic was highest ever at 1,11,441, while the airport welcomed 39,547 international flyers. The highest traffic during the pandemic was recorded in Feb 2021, when it hit 73,509 passengers in a single day.
To meet the demands of rising passenger traffic, service executives have been deployed at the airport, along with queue monitoring technology and terminal operation teams for security. Alongside automated tray retrieval, teams have also been posted at self-baggage drop kiosks to prevent congestion. Manpower has also been scaled up and passengers are given priority, if the traffic surges on some days.
On a pan-India level, the domestic passenger traffic hit 4,14,114 with more than 2,700 flights on a single day on Dec 10. The footfalls are expected to surge further as the holidays approach, and they have already surpassed the pre-pandemic levels achieved in 2019, showing a significant recovery. As domestic flyers are travelling more after lifting of restrictions, major airlines such as Air India are gearing up by reportedly ordering up to 500 new aircraft.
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