Plummeting tourists put Airport authorities in worry

8/08/2017

PUNE: Pune Airport witnessed a dip in passenger movements, both International and domestic, in June as compared to the previous month. While the plunge has been more in terms of international passengers (around 5,000), it is not so much in case of domestic passengers.

An airport official, however, said figures don't show a major dip and that the airport had been growing in terms of the number of passengers and facilities."We cannot call it a dip. Passenger movements at airports keep on increasing and decreasing. And when it comes to Pune, the figures have always been encouraging. The airport has been upgrading services and facilities and passenger traffic of 80 lakh has been projected for 2017-18," an airport official said.

"There are presently four flights to international destinations from the Pune airport. Though things cannot be announced, some more international flights, mainly to Middle East, is expected to start from the airport soon, which will positively affect international passenger traffic," the official pointed out.

A city-based aviation analyst and expert, said, "The lean season for air travel begins from June and the lull continues till September. However, lean season travellers have a lot in store as this season normally sees fierce fare wars amongst airlines, which compete to woo passengers by offering heavy discounted fares and even some airlines come up with companion-free offers in the business and higher class of travel.