Chennai airport to gain from resumption of services by Jet Airways

Airport officials expect the traffic to increase by 15% to 20%

With Jet Airways likely to restart its flight services, Chennai airport could gain a lot from it.

Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said there would be an increase in aircraft movement and passenger traffic.

Jet Airways is planning to relaunch its services in September as it has secured the clearance of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the same. The airline is in the process of recruiting staff.

“Usually, at least a week before the operations begin, airlines send the schedule of flights to the airport. We haven’t received it as yet for Chennai airport from Jet Airways. We are hoping to receive it soon. When the airline restarts its operations, we expect the number of flights and number of passengers travelling from and to the airport to go up by at least 15-20%,” an official said.

Officials said when Jet Airways stopped its operations in 2019, its slots at Chennai remained unused for sometime. Later, other airlines were given those slots. “But a few of those slots still remain with the airport and are vacant. It can have them back. In any case, the AAI headquarters in Delhi will decide about the number of slots and inform the airport,” another official said. 

Initially, the officials expect the airline to operate from Chennai to other major metro cities after which it may expand its services.

Chennai airport is recovering from the slump in traffic during the pandemic. At present, there are close to 330-350 flights a day with the daily footfall touching 45,000 to 50,000 at the airport.