Kolkata Airport running below capacity

The last fiscal (2004-05) proved to be a mixed bag for the Calcutta Airport while on both the passenger traffic front and the cargo handled, with actual volumes greater than the forecast.

However, figures also reveal a capacity and demand mismatch, according to data released by the office of the airport director (AD) of the Aiports Authority of India (AAI) at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.

Demand was lower than the available capacity and this was more pronounced in the passenger traffic area.

For all the elation regarding the aviation sector getting off to a flying start, the demand for international passenger traffic departure stood at 0.308 million for the last fiscal while the capacity was at 0.362 million.

West Bengal had quite a long way to go as far as attracting foreign tourists or visitors went.

International visitor arrivals section had a capacity of 0.483 million as against demand of only 0.299 million, the figures revealed.Combined with transit passengers, there was 0.245 million difference between the higher capacity and lower demand.

The figures on the domestic travellers front combining arrival and departure also revealed a difference of 1.2 million, with a total domestic passenger demand at 2.86 million vis-à-vis capacity of 4.06 million.

The increase in the domestic aircraft movement in terms of numbers of aircraft was higher than the rise in the number of international flights.

Construction of the new and improved domestic section helped improve demand.

Domestic aircraft movement from 2002-03 increased from 26,091 to 34,806 in 2004-05.

In the international section, aircraft movement rose from 6,268 in 2002-03 to 7,568 in 2004-05. The passenger traffic with a combination of international and domestic has increased from 2.827 million in 2002-03 to 3.495 million in 2004-05 with the international passenger traffic contributing a 0.052 million increase from 0.585 million in 2002-03.

The difference between the amount of international and domestic cargo traffic handled at the Kolkata airport was not very large. The combined cargo traffic has increased from 58258 tonne in 2002-03 to 69628 tonne in the last fiscal.

Outlining plans for the city airport to be commenced during the current fiscal, VK Monga, APD, AAI, , Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, said that strengthening and construction of the "D" taxi track, construction of one In-contact Bay no 25, construction of two additional in-contact and remote domestic parking bays each and construction of taxi track linking Dom Apron with Delta taxi track were some of the runway related plans to be taken up.

On the anvil also are the first phase of the integrated cargo complex, modification of the international terminal, a new international arrival hall was commissioned in 2000 are the other non runway (RWY) plans added Monga. The extension and resurfacing of the secondary RWY would also be taken up.