New Hyderabad airport handles 1.9 m passengers in 100 days

Hyderabad: The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, promoted by GMR Group, has handled 1.9 million passengers as it completed 100 days of its operations.

“Despite the hike in ATF (aviation turbine fuel) price and rationalising of routes and frequencies by some airlines, the airport could register 24,769 air traffic movements so far with a daily average of 244. This is an increase of 10 per cent over the same figure in the comparable period last year,” Mr A. Vishwanath, Chief Commercial Officer of RGIA, said here in a press release.

With regard to cargo, it handled 15,209 tonnes, 8 per cent more than in the corresponding period last year.

Two new international airlines, Gulf Air and Air India Express, commenced operations from Hyderabad after the airport launched commercial operations on March 23. While the former airline started daily services to Bahrain, Air India Express launched daily flights to Dubai.

“We have registered energy savings up to 20 per cent. We are going to be the second airport in the world to get LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) certification,” he said.

It, however, doesn’t mean that everything is rosy at the airport. It faced criticism on issues related to baggage handling.