Ludhiana: As the private airlines recently started two commercial flights from Halwara Airport, the airport authorities have suggested that the flights have started to receive a decent response. Even as occupancy in the flights has been between 40% and 65% in the last on week, sources in a private airlines shared that though there had been instances when the number of passengers in the flight was more than 100, they expected the occupancy to be between 75% and 80%.As per the data of occupancy of two flights operating between Halwara and IGI Airport from May 29 to June 3, the lowest occupancy of flights on a day was 40.8% on June 2, whereas the highest occupancy of the flights was on May 29 at 62.5%. The data suggests that on five out of six days, the occupancy has been 45% and more.The data of incoming and outgoing flights suggests that five times, the number of passengers in an incoming or outgoing flight was more than 100. The highest number of passengers in a flight in six days was 145 in the departure flight on Jan 1 morning.Airport director Jagir Singh suggested that on many days the number of passengers in the flights was more than 100. He indicated that the flight has recorded healthy passenger traffic.Sources at the airport shared that though on many days the number of passengers coming from Delhi in the first flight has been less, the number of passengers in the departure flight in the morning is decent. They added that in the second flight, that operates between Halwara and Delhi, the passenger load in incoming and outgoing flights is better than the morning flight.An official at the airport, asking not to be named, said that as the private airline has come up with a schedule for connecting flights to various cities of the country and abroad, it is expected to increase the passenger load in the flights. He added that the flight has a capacity of around 160 passengers.Reacting to passenger load in two flights in recent days, a source in the private airlines said that they will come to know the response to two flights after a month and as of now the passenger load is much less. He added that though in many flights on various days, the number of passengers in the flight was 100 or more, they would want that flights operate at atleast 75% to 80% occupancy.Meanwhile, many residents said that the response for flights is expected to improve in coming time.Harish Kairpal, a city resident and treasurer of Knitwear club, said that the flights wouldn’t have a very good response if those were confined to Delhi and Halwara, but with airlines providing options of connecting flights, the passenger load is surely expected to increase in coming times. He added that the connection time of flights to various cities of the country and abroad is very less, so many of his acquaintance have travelled by it.
