For the first time this festival season, the number of people flying out of Calcutta was more than those coming in.

On Monday, 29,514 passengers took off from Calcutta on domestic flights, airport officials said. The number of arrival passengers in the domestic sector was 28,503, said officials.

During the Durga Puja days, the number of outgoing passengers was around 17,000 on each of the four days on an average, said officials. The, number of incoming passengers was around 28,000.

Airport and airline officials said this year, the number of outgoing passengers during the festival season was much less than expected.

“This year, the outgoing travel was much less than expected. The fares to destinations like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Bagdogra and Goa were not as exorbitant as it is usually during Durga Puja,” said an official of an airline.

“The one-way fares hovered around Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 for these destinations instead of Rs 20,000 and above which we used to see,” said the airline official.

“Also, there were many in the domestic sector who took other modes of transport like driving their own cars and taking trains apprehending very high fares,” he pointed out.

The incoming passenger count in the domestic sector was high because many Calcuttans who work or study in other cities like Bangalore, Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Pune and Mumbai, returned home during the holidays, said airport officials.

From Monday, after the festivities were over, they started flying back.

The Telegraph had reported how the number of flights have gone up mostly in the
domestic sector but the passenger count has not gone up as much.

The high fares were only seen on October 24 and 25 when Calcutta airport was closed for 13 hours due to Cyclone Dana and more than 300 flights were cancelled. A one-way ticket to Delhi had cost Rs 35,000.

“But that was an exception. The demand this year in the festival season was not what we had expected,” said an official of one airline.