As the travel confidence among the domestic as well as international travelers continues to bounce back amid the COVID-19 pandemic in India, Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar, for the second straight month, in August, continued to record strong traffic recovery.
According to the data released by Airport Authority of India (AAI), the airport in August 2021, recorded a staggering growth of over 70% in its international traffic, compared with previous month. The domestic traffic also recorded a growth of over 25.20%.
The Month-on-Month (MoM) growth of overall traffic at airport in August stood at about 35%, while in July it was at about 40%. On comparing these figures with the same time period of the previous year, the MoM traffic growth in July 2020 was at about 23.98%, while in August it stood at about 30.47%.
This traffic trends also represents that, the overall traffic at the airport is now recovering at a faster pace after the 2nd COVID-19 pandemic wave in India, than it did after the complete nationwide lockdown in April-May 2020.
One of the primary reasons behind this strong international traffic growth at the airport in August was the resumption of non-stop flights to London & Birmingham in the UK by Air India, as the UK Government relaxed restrictions for passengers arriving from India and also the reopening of the UAE to more sections of the people from India including, tourists, etc.
This also represents that the reopening of international borders across the globe in a safe manner, in the near future is important for the recovery of the global aviation industry.
The total traffic at the airport for the period January-August 2021 stood at 700,302, which is about -2.74% less, if compared with the figures of same time period of the previous year.
With addition to the overall passenger traffic growth in the past few months, the import/export of international cargo to/from the airport has also experienced a good growth. The international cargo traffic in the month of August saw an growth of over 44%, while the overall cargo traffic growth was at about 6%.
The airport currently is directly connected with over 10 domestic and 7 international destinations, namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar, Patna, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Nanded, Indore, Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Doha, London, Birmingham and Rome.
About The Author:-
Ravreet Singh is a young blogger with an avid interest in the aviation sector. His main focus in aviation, is about connectivity of Amritsar, Punjab with the World. He is an active member of the FlyAmritsar Initiative, a public advocacy campaign for more direct flights to/from Amritsar.