Prayagraj airport records four times more air travel in Feb than Jan

The Prayagraj Airport ferried a record crowd of devotees during Mahakumbh-2025, official data reveals. .

As per the data of the Prayagraj Airport, 5,60,174 passengers travelled by air from here onboard 5,225 flights between January 11 and February 26 during the fair that formally kick-started from January 13 with the Paush Purnima snan.

The surprising trend, however, shows tremendous jump in passenger numbers after the conclusion of three major bathing festivals or ‘amrit snans’ of Mahakumbh.

The fair had a total of six bathing festivals including three ‘amrit snans’ of Makar Sankranti (January 14), Mauni Amavasya (January 29) and Basant Panchami (February 3) that traditionally attract the most pilgrims, airport officials said.

During Mahakumbh, which started on January 13, the number of people travelling by air increased gradually. In view of huge demand, along with charter planes, helicopter service was also started from Prayagraj Airport.

From January 13 to January 31, the number of passengers traveling by air did not even reach 1 lakh, while during this period three major bathing festivals of Mahakumbh (Paush Purnima, Makar Sankranti and Mauni Amavasya) took place. In February, this figure increased four times, airport officials shared.

Seeing the increasing number of passengers, aviation companies hurriedly took landing permissions and started bringing devotees from various cities of the country to Prayagraj. The figure crossed 5.60 lakh passengers in 47 days.

In January, 97,943 passengers travelled by air, while between February 1 and February 26, 4,62,174 passengers travelled by air, shows the data.

Aviation companies are providing services for Mahakumbh till February 28. After this, many of the airlines that started Mahakumbh specific air service like Spice Jet, Akasa and Star Air could end their flights.

Before the Mahakumbh, flights were operated only by Indigo, Alliance Air and Air India in Prayagraj. But seeing the number of devotees, Spice Jet and Akasa started their services. Star Air also provided its services on February 25.

Prayagraj Airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 16, 2018 and made functional with flight operations on January 1, 2019 just before the formal start of Kumbh-2019.

Record: 27,573 passengers boarded 166 planes in a day

During Mahakumbh, new records in terms of air travellers and ‘flights in a single day’ were created quite frequently at Prayagraj Airport, but the passengers who reached by air a day before Mahashivratri bathing festival has such a record which seems difficult to break in coming years.

On February 25, a record 27,573 passengers travelled by air in 166 aircraft, the highest ever in a day for Prayagraj airport.

On this day, 24 flights of Indigo, six of Alliance Air, seven of Akasa, 16 of Spice Jet, 26 of Air India and two of a new aviation company Star Air provided services.

During this period on February 25, the maximum number of 14,048 passengers landed at Prayagraj Airport while 13,525 passengers flew to other cities. At the same time, 262 passengers came by 48 non-scheduled chartered flights and 351 passengers flew to other cities by 48 chartered planes. Earlier, on February 24, 13,167 passengers had arrived and 13,019 passengers had flown to other cities.

Chartered aircrafts hit a century on Feb 24

Till now, the movement of scheduled flights at Prayagraj Airport reached a century everyday between February 15 and February 26, but on February 24, the movement of chartered planes also breached the century mark for the very first time in Prayagraj airport’s history. Between January 11 and February 26, 1775 chartered planes landed at Prayagraj Airport. On February 24, 195 passengers arrived by 63 chartered planes and 249 passengers flew to other cities by the same number of chartered planes.

At the same time, on February 25, the number of chartered planes was lesser, but the count of passengers helped set a new record. A total of 262 passengers arrived by 48 chartered aircraft and 351 passengers flew to other cities by 48 chartered planes. In this way, a record 613 passengers travelled by chartered planes in one day. The air traffic load was the highest on February 24 and 25 as per the data.

Mukesh Upadhyaya, director of Prayagraj Airport, expressed gratitude to the airport staff, and stated, “Not even a single unpleasant incident was reported at airport during the Kumbh. Despite the pressure and stress, the airport administration welcomed the guests with a smile so that they could always cherish the memories of Prayagraj. I would like to thank all my staff who have not taken any leave since the start of the Kumbh for managing the huge traffic. Sometimes we had to spend the whole day at the airport to handle the increased load. After Saturday, we will return to routine duties.”