Mumbai airport passenger volumes register 60% increase in June

Volumes were hit by the second wave of the pandemic in the early part of the year

Passenger traffic at the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), which was hit by the second wave of the pandemic in the early part of the year, gathered pace in June with passenger volume logging around 60 per cent growth in the previous month.

The airport, which had the distinction of being the country's second-largest airport in passenger volumes prior to the emergence of the pandemic last year, handled 6,94,890 passengers in the previous month as against 4,34,680 passengers in May this year, the private airport operator said.

Meanwhile, in the first half (January-June) of the calendar year 2021, CSMIA handled a total of approximately 72,61,158 passengers and operated over 77,797 flights across domestic and international destinations, it said.

Of the total passenger volume in HICY21, approximately 64,87,066 were domestic and the rest 7,74,092 were international passengers. During this period, CSMIA handled as many as 63,992 flights on the local routes and 13,895 on the overseas routes, it stated

According to the release, the airport Dubai emerged as the most popular international destination, having witnessed the highest traffic of over 2,13,770 passengers to and from CSMIA.

This was followed by Newark (US) with over 88,010 and Heathrow with 75,470 passengers respectively.

Similarly, amongst the domestic destinations, Delhi saw the highest movements with over 9,46,890 passengers, followed by Goa with 5,42,350 and Bengaluru with 4,32,180 passengers respectively, CSMIA said.

During the period, the airport also saw the addition of new routes/destinations such as Darbhanga, Adampur, and Kalaburagi amongst others, within the country and places like Batam, Armenia, Miami, and Houston among the international ones, it said.

While the passenger traffic is increasing steadily, the majority of states, as well as international countries, require a negative RT-PCR certificate, as per the airport operator.