Amritsar airport remains a favourite among passengers

AMRITSAR: The Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport here continues to be a favourite among passengers visiting the North Indian region as footfall of domestic and international passengers keeps increasing every year

Updated At : 06:12 AM Apr 17, 2015 IST

<p>The Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport in Amritsar. A Tribune photograph</p>

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 16

The Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport here continues to be a favourite among passengers visiting the North Indian region as footfall of domestic and international passengers keeps increasing every year.

However, fall in domestic and international aircraft movement in the previous financial year offered a challenge to the authorities.

The Amritsar airport recorded a domestic footfall of 7,52,269 in the 2014-2015 fiscal. It was 7,28,909 during 2013-2014. Earlier, in the financial year 2012-2013, it was nearly 5.52 lakh, which was 4.94 lakh in 2011-2012. It was a big leap from 2010- 2011 when the footfall was around 2.96 lakh.

There was a surge in international passengers footfall also. It rose to 7,52,269 in 2014-2015 from 7,28,909 in 2013-2014.

Sources in the airport said the footfall of domestic and international passengers had increased but the desired economic gains for the airport would be visible with the movement of flights, especially international ones.

Aircraft movement falls

Both domestic and international traffic movement came down in the past two fiscals. International aircraft movement came down to 2,456 in 2014-2015 from 2,483 in 2013-2014. Domestic aircraft movement also came down to 7,297 in 2014-2015 from 7,994 in 2013-2014. The Amritsar airport, with modern infrastructure, architecture and equipment offered the state-of-the-art facilities to the airlines and global ambience to the passengers. These facilities and geographical advantage beckon passengers hailing from this region to utilise it.

Sources said budget airline career SpiceJet got embroiled in a financial mess and its popular flights to Mumbai and Srinagar were stopped during some period. It brought down frequency of flight movements.

A surge in passenger movement indicate that aircraft are flying with increased capacity. It translates in high revenues to airlines which would attract more players to start operations from here.