International flyer footfall at Kolkata airport back to normal after conflict blip
KOLKATA: International passenger footfall at Kolkata airport has bounced back after a sudden four-day slump in June caused by the closure of airspace over Middle East after Iran launched a missile strike on US air bases in Qatar and Iraq on June 23.
Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait had scrambled to close their airspace that left all West-bound flights from hubs in the Gulf stranded.
According to airport officials, Kolkata's international flyer count dipped sharply between June 23 and June 26. However, as ceasefire talks between Iran and Israel brought back some stability to the region and airspace restrictions were lifted, flight schedules returned to normal, taking the footfall back to the daily average of around 6,500.
'All onward flights from the region — including those of Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Etihad — were disrupted due to the airspace closure. These carriers handle the bulk of West-bound traffic from Kolkata,' said Kolkata airport director Pravat Ranjan Beuria. 'Now that flight movement has resumed, we are seeing the numbers return to their usual levels.'
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While the availability of flights was a major concern, many travellers also cancelled bookings owing to the conflict.
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According to travel industry sources, about 30% of flyers booked for early last week cancelled their trips.
Data shared by airport sources show that as many as 6,664 international passengers travelled via Kolkata on June 21 aboard 43 flights, and 6,705 passengers on 45 flights on June 22. On June 23, however, numbers dropped to 5,254, with only 39 flights plying. The next day, the count slid further to 4,655 on 35 flights.
This slide continued till June 26.
Once the crisis passed and a ceasefire was announced, flight operations picked up pace. By June 28, passenger volume was 6,496 over 42 flights. On June 29, it climbed to 6,503 across 45 international flights, close to the regular average.
For Kolkata, which has no direct flights to the US or Europe, the halt in transit services through Middle-East hubs proved critical. According to chairman of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), eastern region, Anjani Dhanuka, about 500 passengers travel daily from Kolkata to Europe and the US via hubs like Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
'When the airspace was closed, those journeys were either cancelled or indefinitely postponed.
Now that the flights are back on schedule, we are not seeing any fresh cancellations.'
'The initial wave of cancellations was a knee-jerk reaction to the geopolitical flare-up,' said Anil Punjabi, national executive committee member of the Travel Agents Federation of India. 'But people still see air travel as the most reliable mode, especially for long-haul business and education travel. Businessmen who postponed trips to the US and Europe have now rescheduled their plans and are back in the air.
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