Flight traffic is set to increase six-fold with a large number of chartered flights to ferry India's wealthiest devotees and others to the temples and the city. Travel portals said railway ticket bookings have increased by 60 per cent and intercity cab operators expect a 50 per cent increase in bookings.
Recently, UP CM Yogi Adityanath had said that when the Ram Temple will be inaugurated on January 22 in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 100 chartered planes will land at Ayodhya airport. Industry leaders, film stars and other celebrities will also participate in it. Flight traffic is set to increase six-fold with a large number of chartered flights to ferry India's wealthiest devotees and others to the temples and the city. Travel portals said railway ticket bookings have increased by 60 per cent and intercity cab operators expect a 50 per cent increase in bookings.
Ayodhya Airport Director Vinod Kumar said that a total of 42 inquiries have been received from charter operators. Given the expected crowd, the new airport is unlikely to have sufficient parking space for aircraft. Kumar has asked charter operators to drop and pick up only passengers on January 22. He said they would park their craft at neighboring airports like Lucknow, Varanasi, Kushinagar, Patna and even Delhi. Rajan Mehra, CEO of air charter firm Club One Air, said this year will be a new high for charters. Apart from the Ayodhya programme, private charter operators have already seen a surge in bookings to Ahmedabad for the Vibrant Gujarat Investor Summit and the campaigning for the general elections will see another surge in demand for flights.
increase in inquiries
Club One Air has booked three Falcon 2000 12-seater business jets for the inauguration of the temple. Kanika Tekriwal, founder and CEO of JetSetGo, a marketplace for charters, said there has been an increase in interest with about 25 inquiries for charter flights to Ayodhya as part of the upcoming inauguration. He said this is a higher increase in demand than our normal volume for the area. These requests have come from various cities including Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Nagpur.
Indigo and Air India Express started regular flights from Delhi to Ayodhya on 30 December. SpiceJet President Ajay Singh said on Thursday that the airline will start flights soon. SpiceJet has planned a special Delhi-Ayodhya-Delhi flight for those attending the Ram Temple celebrations. Ayodhya airport is expected to increase scheduled flights soon. An airport official said that at present we are seeing the movement of four flights per day. This will increase to 20-24.
What will be the average rent?
Jetsetgo's Tekriwal said the average fare for leased routes ranges from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, depending on the size of the aircraft. Mandar Bharde, managing director of charter and air ambulance operator MAB Aviation, said flying to Ayodhya airport can be challenging due to fog and low visibility. Bharde said that we are waiting for some clarity on the permissions. Ayodhya airport clearly cannot accommodate so many charters. Preparations are being made to reach the program a day before. Ayodhya airport is built to handle 1 million passengers annually, although it is now open only six hours a day. Airport director Kumar said it would be extended to 12 hours at the time of the temple inauguration or "24 hours if needed".
Number of staff more than 50
The airport, run by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has a staff strength of a little over 50 and will be adding another 10-15 people temporarily from neighboring airports to handle the increase in flight operations. There will be an increase in rail and road traffic around the event on 22 January. ixigo co-founder Alok Bajpai said there has been over 100 per cent week-on-week growth in domestic flight searches for Ayodhya and over 60 per cent week-on-week growth in train travel searches since the launch of the new airport. An increase has been observed. Maximum travel demand to visit Ayodhya is from Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi. The BJP-led Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday announced an annual free train travel scheme to Ayodhya.
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