Mumbai International Airport plans to operate 660 daily flights during winter schedule, Higher than pre-COVID levels

CSMIA has placed an average of 660 daily flight movements operational across domestic destinations, a significant jump from the 2020 winter schedule with an average of 435 daily flight movements.

Mumbai International Airport

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has announced its winter schedule, which will be effective up to 26th March, 2022. With the travel witnessing a steady revival across the globe, CSMIA has placed an average of 660 daily flight movements operational across domestic destinations. This is a significant jump from the 2020 winter schedule with an average of 435 daily flight movements, but more interestingly, the 2021 average of 660 has surpassed the pre-covid 2019 average of 657. 

With a planned average of 660 daily flight movements, the arrival and departure movement have an equal distribution in terms of 330 average daily flight movements each. Destinations including Delhi, Goa, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai have been on the top in terms of the highest flight frequency during the 2020 & 2019 winter schedule.

With the government mandate on 100 percent flight capacity for airlines, the top servicing airlines within the sector have been better able to meet the present demands. Some of the leading airlines are expected to have weekly flight operations, which include IndiGo with 240 weekly operations, SpiceJet with 120 and Go First with 90 weekly movements to cater to the expected passenger traffic.

Meanwhile, the winter schedule of 2020 witnessed an average daily passenger traffic along the lines of IndiGo with 21,035, Air India with 6,774, SpiceJet with 5,855, Vistara with 4,911 and Go First with 4,645. While the 2021 numbers are expected to be close to the pre-covid number of 38,641 for IndiGo, 20,390 for SpiceJet and 13,183 for Go First in terms of the average daily passengers catered to in 2019.

The year 2021 has so far witnessed significant growth in the aviation sector. Meanwhile, the ICRA expects a strong year on year growth of 45-50% and 80-85% in domestic and international passenger traffic for Indian carriers in FY2022 respectively. CSMIA’s winter schedule is almost a 35% rise in the number of flights in comparison to the summer schedule of 2021.