Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport is seeing a new high in international travel from the city.
International passenger traffic from the airport surged a whopping 125% during 2022-23, Airports Authority of India (AAI) data shows. Compared to the 5.97 lakh passengers in 2021-22, some 13.4 lakh international travellers transited through SVPI airport in 2022-23, riding high on the end of Covid restrictions worldwide.
Interestingly, passenger traffic more than doubled even in a time period when there was a marked increase in airfares due to the grounding of several aircraft, in addition to a spike in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price.
Besides holiday makers, adding to the numbers were business travellers arriving in the state, improved flight connectivity to various foreign destinations and students leaving for studies abroad.
“The actual ‘revenge travel’ sentiment was indeed seen during the previous fiscal year when there was a significant surge in leisure holidays as well as business visits mainly because of eased travel restrictions after the pandemic. The upbeat travel sentiment reflected in foreign travel bookings during summer vacation, as well as during Diwali and New Year’s Eve holidays,” Travel Agents’ Association of India (TAAI) – Gujarat chapter said.
Also, with the easing in Covid-19 cases, there was a greater influx of business travellers.
The highest traffic flow was seen between Ahmedabad and the Gulf countries.
A number of business travellers and executives from abroad travelled to Gujarat, due to more multinational companies setting up base in the state in addition to a thriving IT and services sector. Similarly, the Indian business community, which had deferred travel plans due several reasons, also travelled abroad widely. These are some of the common reasons for the rise in passenger traffic at SVPI airport during the last fiscal year.
Flights specifically to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Sharjah and Kuwait are running full. This was followed by cities like Singapore, London, Bangkok and Nairobi.
