Highest growth in "Air travelers" at Patna Airport

I like those news that give an indication of changes in Bihar. Therefore the news that for the 2nd year straight, Patna airport has witnessed the highest growth in air passengers traffic passing through the Patna airport, makes  me feel happy.

So for the year 2010-11, Patna airport again emerged No. 1 amongst 46 airports in the country in terms of the increase in the number of domestic aircraft movements and the number of passengers passing through it. Patna airport overtook the airports in the following cities in terms of total number of domestic passengers taking domestic flights in 2010-11

1. Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar)
2. Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)
3. Vadodra (Gujarat)
4. Raipur (Chattisgarh)
5. Agartala (Tripura)
6. Chandigarh (Chandigarh)
7. Madurai (Tamil Nadu)

The overall passengers travelling in and out of Patna by air has been growing increasingly over the last few years even though the Patna Airport is not considered very safe. The number of passengers that have traveled over the past few years and the percentage growth is listed below:

Year	No of Passengers handled	Percentage change over last year
2010-11	8.38 Lakhs	51.8%
2009-10	5.52 Lakhs	60.5%
2008-09	3.44 Lakhs
2004-05	1.76 Lakhs

The growth from the year 2004-05 when Nitish Kumar's government took over, until last year has been an astounding 376%.   Infact we see a growth month by month as I had captured in one of my posts in 2009 - "Flights of Prosperity"

As per data that is available for 2009-10, Amritsar airport was the next airport with the highest growth (51.8%)  in domestic passengers followed by Dibrugarh (47.4%).

Thus the growth in air passengers is a sign of increasing prosperity and improved law and order where more and more people are willing to travel and that to travel by air.

This and more details can be found in the India Today article "Patna airport emerges on top in passenger traffic growth"


Prashant
www.progressivebihar.com

Flights of prosperity

One of the indicators that the Bihar economy is developing is the airline traffic to Bihar. Bihar's Jayaprakash Narain International airport was one of the most under-utilized airport in a state capital of India. Till last year there were a total of 8 landings and take-offs from this airport. Compare this to the airports in Mumbai or Bangalore where there are more than 650 take offs and landings everyday.

But this scenario is slowly changing. Today there are 12 takeoffs and landings taking place from the Bihar airport. However the clincher is the growing number of passengers travelling to and from Patna by air, which has steadily increased in the last few months.

Air travellers to and fro from Patna:

Month	2008	2009	Percentage change
May	32,249	36,007	11.65%
June	28,960	36,731	26.83%
July	26,583	38,778	45.87%
August	21,955	39,256	78.80%
September	23,117	39,696	71.71%
October	27,711	56,049	102.26%

While it will take more time to get all of India's important destinations connected to Patna, I am sure as the pace of the development continues and further accelerates, we will be seeing not only more domestic connections but international flights also taking off from Bihar.

This increasing air traffic from Patna is already generating more interest in the airline industry and we are likely to see more low cost air connections being established between Patna and major cities of India.

Development, isn't it?

Read more details in The Times of India article `Sushasan' effect: Flyers' flow up