Mumbai Airport: The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport is expected to handle over 1,000 aircraft movements per day after the resumption of regular international flight services, according to the ATC Guild. At present, the traffic at Mumbai Airport, India’s second largest airport, remains around 25% lower compared to the pre-covid period. The airport handled 1,003 aircraft movements on 7 June 2018, in 24 hours. Saifullah, Regional Secretary of the ATC Guild (India) and also the Regional Vice President-South-West Asia, IFATCA, was quoted saying in a PTI report that from an average of 950 aircraft movements per day prior to the Covid pandemic in March 2020, currently, the Mumbai airport handles over 700 arrivals and departures daily.
Saifullah further said at present, they have around 700 plus movements per day, both arrival and departures, which is still 25% of the aircraft movements they have handled in the pre-covid pandemic times. A big chunk of this comes from the domestic sector as some international flight services are taking place under the air bubble agreements, he said on the occasion of 100 years of ATC operations. According to him, regular overseas flight services are expected to resume soon. Then obviously they may handle more than 1,000 movements on a regular basis, he said. The air traffic in the last 23 months has seen ups and downs because of the covid pandemic. But the recovery in traffic witnessed this time, it appears that it has crossed all those peaks, he further added.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, domestic passenger flight services were suspended for a period of two months from 25 March 2020 while international commercial flight services still continue to remain suspended since 23 March 2020. Overseas flights are currently being operated to and from India under bilateral air bubble arrangements, the report added.