Footfall at Kolhapur airport crosses 90k-mark

Kolhapur: Director of

Kolhapur airport

Kamalkumar Kataria said that the passenger traffic from the airport, which started operations from December 9 last year, has crossed the 90,000-mark by October this year.

Kataria added that cumulatively, over 2,000 flights have landed or taken off from the airport till date, of which 1,500 flights were run by scheduled operators and over 500 by non-scheduled operators. The frequency of the non-scheduled flights increased during the election phase and the floods—a time when the city was blocked on all sides and the only way to reach was via air.

According to Kataria, development works worth Rs 274 crore are being undertaken at the airport, which includes a 14km compound wall, a runway expansion worth Rs 80 crore, a Rs 65 crore-terminal building and air traffic control tower.

Currently, Air Alliance, IndiGo, and TruJet are operating flights from the airport. Sources said that the surge in passenger traffic could be attributed to the commencement of air services to various destinations from the airport without much hiccup.

At present, flights from the airport ply to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Tirupati, and Mumbai. Air Alliance, which started its operations on the Hyderabad, Bengaluru route from December 9, has received an overwhelming response from passengers. While air services to Tirupati started on May 12, flights to Mumbai started taking off from the airport from September 1 this year.

It has to be noted that operations of Kolhapur airport resumed after a gap of six years, with Air Deccan launching the first flight from the city to Mumbai on April 22, 2018. The flight service had to be stopped in September last year due to various irregularities.