90 flights from Chennai cancelled in the first 11 days of this month

The busy airport now looks nearly empty

14/03/2020, SUNITHA SEKAR ,CHENNAI

Chennai airport has seen a huge decrease in passenger traffic.

 B. VELANKANNI RAJ

Owing to a drastic reduction in flight occupancy and passenger traffic due to the spread of COVID-19, 90 flights were cancelled at the Chennai airport, in the first 11 days of the month.

According to officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), several airlines, including Singapore Airlines, IndiGo, Sri Lankan Airlines, Air India, Cathay Pacific, Kuwait Airways, Lufthansa and Batik Air, cancelled flights to different destinations. Dubai, Colombo, Singapore and Kuwait are among places to which the airlines cancelled their flights.

While some airlines informed the AAI that the cancellations were due to the COVID-19 situation, many of them told the AAI that the cancellations were due to ‘operational reasons’. But officials said that an airline could suddenly cancel its flight if flight occupancy is low.

Operational reasons

“For instance, if less than half the seats remain unbooked, airlines would not want to waste money on operating the flight, and would decide to cancel it, citing operational reasons for the cancellation,” an official said. Across the country, nearly 500 flights have been cancelled to several destinations, by both domestic and international carriers.

The Chennai airport, which usually has about 33,000 passengers travelling a day, now looks almost empty.

Last month, the airport’s passenger traffic had decreased by 10%, but the reduction is likely to be much higher this month.