SpiceJet Debuts Canada Flight With 350+ Passengers; Bengaluru Beats Mumbai In Air Traffic!

The SpiceJet has successfully operated its maiden long-distance wide-body charter flight from New Delhi to Toronto, Canada.

Under the initiative to bring back stranded people home, the private carrier has repatriated 352 Canadian nationals and residents from its chartered flight.

In other news, the traffic at the Bengaluru airport surpasses the otherwise busy Mumbai and Kolkata airports.

Read on to find out more…

SpiceJet’s Maiden Long-Haul Flight To North America! 

SpiceJet has operated over 515 charter flights and Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate close to 85,000 stranded Indian citizens from countries such as Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Netherlands, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

SpiceJet for its first-ever journey to Canada has chartered the wide-body Airbus A330-900 Neo aircraft from Hi-Fly which has a capacity of 353 economy and 18 business class seats, for this long-haul journey

The Toronto bound flight departed from New Delhi at 8:10 AM (IST) and will reach Toronto at 6:40 PM (local time).

Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director (MD), SpiceJet said, “Our first-ever long-haul charter flight to Canada is yet another example of our commitment to helping as many people as we can to get back home to their families in these troubled times.”

Singh added, “Being the first Indian budget airline to operate a non-stop long-haul flight to North America is a proud moment for the SpiceJet family. We have operated flights across the globe repatriating close to 85,000 people and transporting over 28,000 tons of medical and essential supplies and we intend to keep on with our efforts.”

On August 1, the private airline repatriated 269 Indians from Amsterdam to Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Bengaluru Airport The 2nd Busiest Airport!

As per latest statistics released by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), all the airports in the country have shown a dip in patronage by 92% to 97%.

This can be cited to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent the restrictions on the air travel.

Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport has snatched the position of Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and emerged as the 2nd busiest airport in India.

The figures of Q1 of FY 2020-2021 (April-June 2020) indicate that a total of  4,54,704 international and domestic passengers have been recorded from the Bengaluru airport.

Whereas, the figures of international and domestic passengers at Mumbai airport around the same time are 3,19,412. The fourth position is held by the Kolkata airport, the worst affected airport due to the pandemic.

New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport tops the chart with the maximum patronage of 12,31,338 passengers in the same period. 

According to a Kolkata International Airport (KIA) official, an average of 180 Air Traffic Movements (ATM) comprising arrivals and departures were recorded at Bengaluru in June. This was in contrast to the nearly 700 ATMs before the regular flight operations were stopped due to COVID-19 pandemic.

“As per data (of Aug 6), a total of 91 arrivals and 94 departures occurred at the airport. This included international as well as Vande Bharat Mission flights.” 

The statistics indicate the international footfall in the 4.5 lakh figure in Bengaluru now stands at 19,427.

Will the airports and airlines recover from the humongous loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic resultant air travel restrictions?