In March, Delhi Was Second Busiest Airport In The World, Handling 3.61 Million Seats
After more than two years, the world is finally opening up to the pre-pandemic levels.
Though the pandemic is not over yet, the increase in vaccination rate has enabled air travel, both domestic and international to pick up.
According to the Official Airline Guide (OAG), a global travel data provider, Delhi airport was the world's second busiest airport in March in terms of domestic and international flights handled.
Was 23rd in March 2019
"Whilst Atlanta retains its position as largest, Dubai is knocked out of second place this month (March) by Delhi which moves up from third place last month (February)," the OAG's report mentioned.
The Delhi airport was on 23rd place in March 2019 before the pandemic, it added.
In March this year, airports in Atlanta in the US, Delhi in India and Dubai in the UAE handled 4.42 million, 3.61 million and 3.55 million seats, it mentioned.
Increase in passengers
In a statement, Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO, Delhi Airport International Limited (DIAL), said, "COVID-19 pandemic had hit the world hard. Travel restrictions had badly affected the travel and tourism sectors for two consecutive years."
But now, with the rise in the number of vaccinated people across the world, governments are easing travel restrictions and slowly opening up their borders, he said.
"India has last month opened its borders and allowed the entry of fully vaccinated international travellers into the country," he said.
These steps have largely helped the travel and tourism industry and given a much-needed boost to air travel, he said.
Domestic and international flights back to normal
While domestic flights had been operating without any COVID-19 restriction in India since October 2021, this was not the case for international.
In March, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said that domestic air traffic which was at 3.9 million passengers per day fell to 1.16 million during the third wave under the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
However, the numbers bounced back to 3.83 million as of now close to the pre-COVID number of 4.1 million passengers per day.
Regular international flights resumed in India only on March 27, 2022, two years after it was suspended due to COVID-19.
The Airports Authority of India had revised its?guidelines for international flights.
One of the major changes in guidelines is that the requirement of airlines keeping three seats vacant for social distancing has now been removed.
The requirement of a complete Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kit for the crew members, as per the revised guidelines, has also been removed.
"The pat-down search conducted by the security personnel at the airport is re-introduced. Though wearing masks at the airport or aircraft should still be continued," the AAI said.
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