Mumbai Airport sees 27% rise in pax traffic to London in FY20

GVK-AAI run Mumbai Airport said on Tuesday passenger traffic to London from Mumbai is expected to rise about 27 per cent this fiscal following the resumption of services on the route by the Virgin Atlantic last Sunday. The British carrier, which stopped flying to India's financial hub from London in January 2016, relaunched its non-stop daily flight services on the route from Oct 27 in a bid to capture demand in the wake of grounding of Jet Airways.

Jet Airways had been operating three daily flights on the Mumbai-London route before ceasing all operations in April this year. Virgin Atlantic's first flight operated by a 256- seater Boeing 787, arrived in the city from London Heathrow on October 28, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the operator of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), said in a release.

"CSMIA through this introduction will approximately see 27 per cent boost in passenger traffic to London from Mumbai," the airport operator said. National carrier Air India and British Airways are the two other airlines flying to London from Mumbai.

With the launch of new flight services, Mumbai Airport now operates 33 flights per week and over 1,500 passenger per day between the UK capital and India's financial capital, MIAL said in the release. In the fiscal year ended March 2019, over 5.50 lakh passengers travelled on the Mumbai-London-Mumbai route, it added..

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