Coronavirus fear makes fewer people travel by air

Hyderabad airport witnesses 15,000 flyers each day now compared to 60,000 previously

Close to 80 days since domestic flight services resumed across the country, the Covid-19 scare continues to impact air travel what with the footfall of domestic passengers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Shamshabad, standing at a mere 15,000 passengers, including arrivals and departures, per day. Before the pandemic, the airport used to see about 60,000 a day.

Airport sources told

Deccan Chronicle that ever since flight services resumed on May 25, the footfall at RGIA was around 3,000 per day in the first few weeks which rose to around 13,000 passengers till the end of July. Over the last few days, it slightly increased to 15,000.

Air traffic movement has increased by almost 3.5 times from about 40 during the first few weeks of airport recommencement to 150 daily now.

All domestic flyers are being thermally screened for temperature. Those with fever (temperature above 98.7ºF) are referred to the health officials stationed at the airport where they are subjected to further examination.

Based on their assessment, passengers may or may not be allowed to board the flight.

In the case of arrivals, passengers with high temperature and symptoms are being referred to Gandhi or other government hospitals for swab tests. There is no mechanism in place to check whether they visit those hospitals or make their own arrangements once they are outside the airport. “Sometimes there are a dozen people in a day who are running high temperature, on other days the number could be more or less. But we cannot say for sure if all of them are Covid-19 positive,” they said.

The series of safety measures taken up by the airport post recommencement of flight services has done little to build confidence among the flyers. “Besides frequent sanitisation of the airport on a daily basis and deep cleaning, a significant component of passenger safety is circulation of fresh and safe air inside the terminal building,” sources at the airport said.

“As per the latest guidelines issued by the government on the quantity of fresh air requirement, the airport reconfigured the air conditioning systems and the network of air circulation across the terminal building and further enhanced the indoor air quality by doubling the quantity of the treated fresh air requirements,” sources said adding that post Covid-19, all regulatory norms for circulation of fresh air flow in the terminal have been doubled to ensure better indoor air quality.

Soon after the flight services had resumed, the airport had put in place several measures like contactless boarding, staggered seating arrangements, disinfectant tunnels for baggage among other measures to ensure passenger safety. Yet, many are sceptical amid reports suggesting that many passengers got infected during air travel.