Prayagraj Airport copes with sudden surge in traffic

Prayagraj: The Prayagraj airport is currently operating an average of about 40 non-scheduled charters and private jets daily for the rich and famous, with figures touching 70 such flights on weekends, thanks to spiking in rush to the Maha Kumbh.

Those figures are over and above the average 148 scheduled commercial passenger aircraft, which is more than seven times the number during non-Kumbh periods, operating from the airstrip every day setting record passenger movement through the airport that keeps breaking repeatedly since the beginning of the Maha Kumbh, a senior Airports Authority of India official said.

The latest such record was posted on February 21 when 24,512 passengers arrived at and departed from the airport by 236 flights on a single day, the official said.

The victims were from the districts of Cuttack, Khordha, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Keonjhar, and Mayurbhanj in Odisha, police added.