The Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi will resume regular flight services from Saturday after keeping daytime flights suspended for two months due to maintenance of the runway, airport authorities said on Thursday, adding that at least 20 flights will fly from the State capital daily from January 16.
Flights remained suspended from 10.30 am to 5.30 pm here from November 16 to keep the runway free for “carpeting”. The suspension of flights during the aforementioned period led to rescheduling of several flights and left travelers with no option but to either take early morning flights or flights post-sunset, officials said. Besides, many connecting flights via Kolkata or other nearer airports were rescheduled and passengers had to take connecting flights from New Delhi instead, sources said.
“Around 17 flights took off from Ranchi and landed here every day during the past two months. From Saturday, the number of flights will increase to 20, and we are expecting more flights from Ranchi in the days to come,” said Deputy General Manager (Air Traffic Management) at Birsa Munda Airport, Wilfred Kerketta.
However, the largest airport in Jharkhand was yet to achieve the pre-lockdown air traffic. “We had at least 30 flights before the lockdown was enforced. The number had increased gradually, but we are still 10 flights short of our pre-lockdown traffic,” Kerketta added.
Last month, Ranchi started new direct flights to Chennai and the response has been positive, airport authorities said. “We are in talks with the state government to increase the number of flights from Ranchi and we are hopeful of getting more flights soon,” Kerketta said.
The passenger footfall at the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi has tripled since June, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) stated in December. However, the passenger footfall here was still less than half of what it used to be in pre-Covid times, local airport officials said.
The AAI stated that the passenger traffic at the Ranchi airport had dropped down to 57,749 in the month of June, when travel restrictions were relaxed after strict lockdown since March. The passenger traffic shot up to 1,41,268 in November this year when more flights were allowed to ply, the AAI stated, lauding the airport staff here for their dedication.
The airport has expansion plans in the pipeline. It is likely to extend its runway, increase the length of the basic strip and construct an isolation bay on extra land that will be allotted to the AAI once the Cabinet gives its nod to the expansion plans, officials said.
The Ranchi airport also bagged the top position in India in Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), as per a survey conducted by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) through a third-party surveying body in October last year.