If you thought that the rush at Delhi and Mumbai airports would ease up once the current festive travel ends, then you could be wrong. RateGain’s Demand-AI’s Airline Travelers’ Forecast shows that the high-demand dates are in February thanks to nearly 100 conferences, trade shows, and the wedding rush.
Over the next 60 days, India’s largest airports Delhi and Mumbai will witness an average 15-22 per cent spike in arrivals on a month-on-month basis and an average daily rise of 50-71 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
“February is witnessing a much higher number of arrivals specifically in Delhi as compared to January. Delhi and Mumbai together will see over 90 plus conferences and tradeshows just in January driving a lot of traffic from outside the city,” RateGain’s Global head of Marketing, Ankit Chaturvedi explained.
Wedding traffic
He added that it was reported that India will witness a total of 32 lakh weddings between November and February and every other date in February is an auspicious date for marriage, and hence, the spike could be due to the same as well.
According to RateGain’s data accessed by businessline, 3rd and 5th February are likely to witness close to 98,839 and 97,877 passengers at Delhi airport thus recording a 20 per cent and 22 per cent spike respectively.
Like Delhi, the highest demand dates for Mumbai are also in February, with January also expected to have a steady MoM increase in influx. Mumbai airport is likely to witness a spike in arrivals on 4th, 3rd, and 11th of February. RateGain’s data shows that Mumbai airport could handle over 66,839, 66,733, and 66,548 daily arrivals thus witnessing a 13.66 per cent, 12.62 per cent, and 14.77 per cent hike in arrivals over the previous month.
In Mumbai, the first week of February will see increased travel demand as the week-long Kala Ghoda Arts Festival begins from February 4.
Demand in Delhi in January is going to be driven by different events. On January 13th the Auto Expo returns to Delhi after a hiatus of three years. Demand would again go up before Republic Day on January 25.