Thanks to Mahakumbh, Prayagraj is now one of India’s top airports

Prayagraj is hosting the historic Mahakumbh, a once-in-144-year phenomenon this year. The Mahakumbh started last month and ends with the Shahi Snan on February 26, 2024. This once-in-a-lifetime spectacle is seeing air traffic like never before, and Prayagraj Airport is handling as many passengers a day as it did a month before the Mahakumbh started.

Not only has the airport started handling flights at night with the expanded terminal and apron area, but flights also have more than quadrupled since the pre-Maka Kumbh times. The airfares hit the roof, and the government stepped in as complaints reached social media. With airfares no longer under government control, a collaborative effort is being made to help the airlines add capacity and stabilise airfare. Airlines added flights and upgraded planes to higher capacity, and the complaints have marginally declined. The airport, though, has made it to the top 20 airports in the country, ahead of Patna or Chandigarh.

Data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, exclusively for this article, shows that on some days of the week, the airport handles over 42 departures, four times the number before Mahakumbh.

SpiceJet on the forefront

Surprising as it may seem, it's not IndiGo leading the frequencies from Prayagraj. It is Spicejet which has the highest number of flights. The airline has 116 out of 283 weekly flights from Prayagraj, followed by IndiGo, which has 82 weekly departures. Air India, which announced flights and expansion much later than others, now has 32 weekly flights planned. At the same time, low-cost subsidiary Air India Express remains absent from the market. Akasa Air and government-owned Alliance Air have 28 and 25 weekly departures, respectively. For SpiceJet, flights to Prayagraj constitute nearly 13% of its total domestic departures.

Also Read: BharatPe launches ‘Maha Kumbh Shield’: Here’s how devotees in Prayagraj can secure digital payments. Step-by-step guide

SpiceJet is also leading in connectivity. The airline connects Prayagraj to nine destinations, IndiGo and Alliance Air connect to eight, and Akasa Air and Air India connect four and three. A total of 17 unique destinations are currently connected from Prayagraj. Delhi leads with 87 weekly departures, followed by Mumbai with 53, while Bengaluru comes in next with 36 departures.

For SpiceJet, which is in the middle of another transformation on the financial front, the sudden spurt of high-paying sectors in its networks makes a lot of financial sense and helps tide over the cash flow issues. SpiceJet had operated extra flights to Prayagraj, then Allahabad, in 2013 when the last Kumbh was held. The airline was in the middle of its Q400 induction over a decade ago and, on some days, operated up to eight flights a day from Delhi. The market has changed by leaps and bounds since then, with connectivity from across the country and not just Delhi this time around.

Beyond Prayagraj

Passengers are making the pilgrimage to Prayagraj and looking to club the trip with Ayodhya and Varanasi. Long traffic jams along the Lucknow, Ayodhya, Prayagraj, and Varanasi highways have been a testament to the large crowds which continue to pour in for the holy dip.

Varanasi, for example, is handling 40 per cent more departures this February than last February. Akasa Air, IndiGo, and Air India Express have doubled flights between Bengaluru and Varanasi.

Tail note

Prayagraj has propelled itself into the top 20 airports in the country. The statistics for January and February will show that the holy city is doing better than Goa’s Mopa Airport or Chandigarh for these months. Religious traffic is a significant proportion everywhere but more so in India.

Can Uttar Pradesh capitalise on this traffic and cultivate a better offering all year round? The infrastructure is already ready, and the tourist circuit of Prayagraj, Ayodhya and Varanasi can attract tourists year-round. The last two major airports to open were Ayodhya, a religious place, and Goa’s Mopa, serving the country's tourist capital. Both have seen the traffic taper off after the initial euphoria. The rush at Prayagraj also teaches us what to expect if India has to host large-scale events like the Olympics.