PATNA: With the rise in airfares on different domestic routes, the Jayprakash Narayan International Airport (JPNI) has witnessed a drastic fall in daily passenger footfall for more than a week now. Flight operations, too, has reduced to almost half due to low occupancy rate.
When compared to previous month, the daily footfall of passengers has come down by 35-40% or 6,000-7000 flyers per day. In March, the average footfall was around 12,000 at Patna airport. The number of flights operating from the airport has also come down to 30-35 per day against the summer schedule of 55 flights. The operations of night flights remained cancelled for the last few days due to poor occupancy.
The airfares have remained high on different routes since Holi festival due to exponential rise in the prices of jet fuel. The base fare has increased by around 20-25% on most domestic routes. The minimum fare on Patna-Delhi route has been as high as Rs 6,987-Rs 8,247 per passenger. It costs at least Rs 7,407 to fly to Mumbai and Hyderabad from Patna, Rs 8,247 to Bengaluru and Rs 7,512 to Kolkata.
An Airports Authority of India (AAI) official at Patna said since the load of passengers has declined, the number of flights operating from the city airport has also come down. “We expect some rise in passenger footfall once the wedding season begins in mid-April,” the official added.
A SpiceJet executive said the rise in jet fuel prices was responsible for increase in airfares.
Meanwhile, an executive of Go First said the airline has reduced the number of flights operating from the city airport to 5-6 per day from the scheduled 12.
