Tensions between India and Pakistan have scaled down, but air travel has not picked up even a week after the neighbours announced an understanding to hold fire, officials at the Calcutta airport and airlines said on Friday.
Airlines and tour operators said passengers were still apprehensive about air travel, and the numbers reflected that.
The airport had 24,947 passengers taking off and 25,404 arriving in the city on May 15, Thursday. On May 8, the Calcutta airport had 25,037 fliers leaving and 26,412 arriving, said officials.
Before the cross-border tension escalated between the two countries, the Calcutta airport would handle more than 30,000 departures and the same number of arrivals every day, on average. The summer holiday is one of the peak travel seasons of the year. But now, the rush is missing at the airport, said officials.
Till Friday, flights from Calcutta to Srinagar, Chandigarh and Hindon continued to remain cancelled, said an airport official.
“Although all 32 airports in the north and western part of the country, which were closed, have reopened, air travel has not picked up. The passenger count is still 15 to 20 per cent less compared to normal times,” said an official of an airline.
Airfares in several domestic sectors continued to be low because demand has not picked up, said tour operators.
A one-way ticket from Calcutta to Delhi for Saturday was around ₹6,000 on Friday afternoon. Usually, it is over ₹8,000. For Mumbai, too, the fare was around ₹6,000, much less compared to the usual.
“People are still apprehensive to travel to tourist destinations, particularly those near the border,” said Anil Punjabi, national committee member of Travel Agents Federation of India, representing the eastern region. “This summer, leisure travel has taken a hit.”
There are some last-minute bookings for international destinations, Punjabi said.
Domestic leisure travel, particularly to Kashmir, has been severely hit.
“I had seven groups booked for Kashmir this summer. All of them have been cancelled. Two groups are going to Leh and Ladakh, but 50 per cent of the members have cancelled,” said Raktim Roy, managing partner of Dolphin Travels.
Many have deferred non-essential travel plans because of the heightened security at airports, said tour operators.
At airports, scanning is now being done at ladder points before boarding a flight, apart from at the security check counters. Luggage scanning has been intensified, and airport-bound vehicles are being checked.
“The heightened security continues,” said an official at the Calcutta airport.
In the international sector, with the Pakistan airspace closed, many flights bound for Europe, the UK and the US are taking diverted routes, which is taking more time.
Sources in Air India said the airline’s flights to these places were taking about one-and-a-half hours extra because of the deviation route.
Many flights are making stopovers at cities for refuelling because of the additional flying.
Two Air India flights to San Francisco recently made technical stops at the Calcutta airport for refuelling, sources said.