The passenger footfall at the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi has almost tripled since June, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) stated on Sunday. However, the passenger footfall here was still less than half of what it used to be in pre-Covid times, airport officials admitted.
The AAI took to social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter to highlight 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. However, the passenger traffic shot up to 1,41,268 in November this year when more flights were allowed to ply, the AAI stated.
The Director of Birsa Munda Airport, Vinod Sharma attributed the rise in the passenger density to the increasing number of flights to and from Ranchi. The number of flights from Ranchi, he said, increased from eight in the month of June to 17 in the month of November, contributing to the rise in footfall of passengers here.
“We had only eight flights soon after the Covid-induced lockdown. Now, we have 17 flights from Ranchi,” said Sharma, adding that the Ranchi airport now had flights to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai despite the Covid-enforced restrictions.
Despite a significant improvement since June, the passenger footfall here was still less than half of what it used to be before the Covid-19 pandemic hit India. At least 30 flights from Ranchi connected Jharkhand to different parts of the country before the Covid-19 restrictions hit the aviation
industry.
“We had a passenger footfall of around 3 lakh before the lockdown restrictions were imposed. Our target is to achieve the same passenger footfall gradually,” said Sharma. “We have started new flights to Chennai. The flight services to Kolkata, which were stalled during the lockdown, also resumed later,” he added.
Passenger footfall is the number of passengers taking off from and landing at a particular airport in a given month. As per AAI, the footfall in Ranchi airport gradually grew from 65,602 in July to 86,445 in August and then it further rose to 1,01,271 in September. The passenger footfall in October was 1,28,145, AAI data highlighted.
In October, the Birsa Munda Airport bagged the top position in the country in the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI). The Ranchi airport secured 4.79 out of five in the grading system of the survey, leaving behind Gaya, Surat, Agartala, Bhopal, Khajuraho, Vijaywada and 10 other “medium sized” airports, officials added.
The airport also has expansion plans in the pipeline. It is likely to extend its runway, increase the length of 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 Birsa Munda Airport at present has a 75 meter basic strip, which is the minimum length required for any airport. The length of the basic strip, the airport director said, will be increased to 140 meters once the expansion plan is approved.