Srinagar airport expansion set for take off

Srinagar, Oct 21: Even though passenger footfall at the Srinagar International Airport has almost halved in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, the terminal is set to witness an addition of 6500 sq ft space in the departure area to ensure smooth passenger handling during increased air traffic.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Director Airport Javed Anjum said, “With passenger numbers down after the Pahalgam attack, we are expanding the terminal by 6500 sq ft to ensure smoother departures once the skies get busier.”

He said that they are moving out a few offices and vendors from the departure floor to make extra space available for day-to-day passenger operations.

“This is an existing space, the use of which will be changed to help decongest the terminal,” the Director Airport said.

He said that efforts were being made to add flights to more destinations, which were discontinued due to less demand.

“Earlier, there was direct connectivity to Bhubaneswar, Dehradun, Ahmedabad, and Bengaluru, which was stopped, but now we are trying to resume these flights,” Anjum said.

He said that though the winter schedule of flights would come into effect from October 29, efforts were being made to start more flights than the scheduled ones.

“The flights in the winter schedule are fewer than desired, but we are trying to add to that,” the Director Airport said.

He said that the overall expansion of the Srinagar Airport was on the anvil, with the final approval from the Centre’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) awaited.

“Work on the project drawings will begin only once there is a nod from the CCEA,” Anjum said.

Commenting on the profitability and revenue generation of the Srinagar Airport, he said that due to a reduction in air traffic, profits were set to witness a “considerable decrease” this financial year.

“We expect the profit to fall by 20 to 30 percent during the current financial year,” the Director Airport said.

Notably, in 2023, Srinagar Airport was the third-most profitable airport in the country.

The Director Airport said that several other operations, such as the “toll collection” at the entry of the airport premises, are not being done due to lower footfall.

“We have opened the tender for it, but no parties have come forward due to the low passenger footfall,” Anjum said.

However, he said that there has been a vast expansion in terms of the retail outlets at the airport terminal, with almost 22 new retail shops having been added.

“These outlets have already been allocated, and we are already generating revenue from these. Within a month, 10 more shops will come up as food outlets,” the Director Airport said.

He said that at the beginning of this month, a free WiFi facility was also started at the airport premises.