Adding more flight option, GVK Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), the company that operates the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), has marked the arrival of the maiden flight of Thai Smile which will operate five flights in a week on the Mumbai-Bangkok route. In the past few months, CSIA has been successful in establishing route connectivity to various new destinations, namely Jakarta (by Garuda Indonesia), Bali (by AirAsia X Indonesia), Brussels (by Brussels Airlines), Kigali (by Rwandair), Toronto (by Air Canada) and Beijing (by Air China). Moreover, Thai Lion was a new airline that commenced operations effective September 27 from Mumbai to Don Mueang, the second airport in Bangkok.
CSIA has over 45 airlines operating to 48 destinations from the city to various parts of the world. In FY 2017, CSIA, Mumbai welcomed 45.2 million air travellers (12.4 million international passengers) registering an annual growth of eight per cent. In addition to this, the airport ranked second in foreign tourist arrivals in India in FY 2017, constituting 17 per cent of the country’s total foreign tourist arrivals and contributing 20 per cent to India’s total tourist arrival on e-tourist visa. With 31 catchment airports within the flying range of 45 to 150 minutes, CSIA transferred 9.25 million passengers in FY 2017.
