A first: Prayagraj handles 100+ flights in a day

Airport sets new record for its highest single-day passenger footfall

- K Sandeep Kumar

PRAYAGRAJ: It is not just the railway stations and roads leading into Prayagraj that are dealing with heavy devotee movement as they continue to pour into and out of the Mahakumbh city. Even the Prayagraj Airport has been humming with activity, setting records.

The airport completed a century of scheduled flight operations in a single day, on February 16. A record 20,297 passengers travelled (the highest ever in a single day) on 120 scheduled flights.

Earlier, on February 15, again 120 scheduled flights were operated, Prayagraj airport officials said. This was the highest number of scheduled flights in a day, after the construction of the airport. On February 15, 19,822 passengers travelled on 120 scheduled flights, they added.

Prayagraj Airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 16, 2018 and made functional with flight operations on January 1, 2019 just before the formal start of Kumbh-2019. Records show that on February 16, 2025, 10,152 passengers arrived on board 60 scheduled flights while 10,145 flew out on 60 flights. Likewise, on February 15, 10,300 arrived on board 60 scheduled flights, while 9,522 flew out on another 60 scheduled flights.

Earlier, on February 13, 16,310 passengers had travelled by air on board 96 flights, and which till then was the highest ever scheduled flights in a day for the airport. In February 2025, more than 13,000 passengers travelled by air every day. Data shows that between February 1 and February 16, a total of 2,14,593 passengers travelled on board 1,288 scheduled flights amounting to an average of 13,412 passengers per day with the airport handling 81 scheduled flights per day on average.