Madurai airport witnesses rise in passenger footfall

With domestic flights taking flight, the Madurai airport saw a total of 34,266 passengers during August and an increased footfall of 46,839 during September when 470 flights arrived and departed, according to S. Senthil Valavan, Director, Madurai airport. Earlier, low passenger count was witnessed owing to COVID scare, but the situation is gradually returning to normal as people have started travelling. The passenger count is expected to increase further in the coming days.

The airport sees a fleet of about 12 to 13 domestic flights daily touching destinations including Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Further, the Airport Director said as many as 8,780 passengers on international flights landed in Madurai during repatriation operation from May to September this year and 552 international passengers transited through Madurai.

He also told DT Next that Madurai airport, apart from the existing schedule, will have an addition soon with the flight to depart from Bengaluru to Coimbatore via Madurai.

“It was a healthy sign and looked like tourism would rebound from its worst season,” said Thilak Rajkumar, tourism operator in Madurai. “Madurai is a hub of tourism and about 25 to 30 per cent of air passengers landing at Madurai are tourists from North India, who mostly visit Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple at heart of city and Ramanathaswamy temple at Rameswaram,” he said.