The trend of increase in passenger traffic at the Vijayawada Airport, Gannavaram, year after year post bifurcation and announcement of capital Amaravati is picking up pace.
During the first half of 2016-17 financial year, the airport registered a growth of 71.38 per cent compared to that of the corresponding period last year.
An average of 1,776 passengers travelled through the airport to various destinations like Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Vizag and other cities from April to September.
According to the officials of the Airport Authorities of India, the growth was tremendous and expected to rise by the end of the fiscal year.
Vijayawada Airport Director G. Madhusudana Rao, who released the data, said they were expecting nearly 6.4 lakh passengers against the last fiscal’s figure 4.04 lakh.
Addition of new destinations and airliners had contributed to the growth in passenger traffic. The movement of Union and State Ministers, legislators and politicians added to the passenger count.
Being the only airport in the region, it served a large number of passengers during the Krishna Pushkarams.
In August when the Pushkarams were celebrated, 56,312 passengers commuted through the airport registering a growth of 87.1 per cent. During August, 2015 only 30,100 passengers commuted. In the same month, a record number of aircraft movements had been handled. The total number of aircraft movements handled in the month were 1,009 which was 110.2 per cent more than the movements handled in the corresponding month last year.
On the other hand, the airport authorities are due to complete the works of the New Domestic Terminal in January.
