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In the first month after its inauguration, the Ayodhya airport handled close to 25,000 passengers, which was about 146 flyers per domestic flight, shows Airports Authority of India (AAI) data for the month of Jan.

As a comparison, the busiest airports of India—Delhi and Mumbai—recorded an average of 166 domestic passengers per flight in the same month.

“A large majority of these 24,866 passengers flew to/from Ayodhya in the last two weeks of Jan. Passenger traffic started to pick up only a few days before the inauguration of Ram Mandir on Jan 22,” said an AAI official.

For instance, direct flights from Mumbai to Ayodhya started only on January 15 and hence, the first two weeks of January barely saw any passenger traffic. Currently, the airport handles about 24 arrivals and departures, with the highest frequency from Delhi, followed by Mumbai and then other destinations like Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Patna and Darbhanga. “Passenger volumes are higher for the month of February,” he added.

Though March is a lean period for religious tourism, the demand for flights to Ayodhya hasn’t dropped considerably. The cheapest, 24-hour advance purchase fare for a return trip from Kolkata this weekend was priced at INR 24,000 for a flight via Delhi. For Bengaluru, the return trip was priced at INR 22,000 and involved a one-way transit via Mumbai and a direct return flight.

The cheapest option was from Delhi, with return fares on direct flights starting at INR 10,000. For direct flights from Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad, the cheapest return ticket was priced at INR 20,000.

Online travel portal, MakeMyTrip said its searches from across India for travel to Ayodhya increased by 1,806 per cent after the announcement of the temple’s inauguration. But the highest number of searches was recorded on Dec 30.

  • Published On Mar 3, 2024 at 07:26 PM IST

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