Coimbatore airport sees rise in passenger movement in December

The Coimbatore International Airport witnessed a footfall of over 1.5 lakh passengers in the first two weeks of December. The fortnightly passenger traffic used to be 1.2 to 1.3 lakh before.

Associations from the region, including the Kongu Global Forum (KGF), feel that the increase in passenger traffic underscores Coimbatore airport’s potential to have new flights by Fly Dubai, Air Asia, Qatar Airways, Srilankan Airlines, Etihad Airways and Thai Airways.

According to them, IndiGo and Air India Express should consider starting flights to Doha, Colombo, Bangkok, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. Associations in Coimbatore have written to the airlines in India to provide the required aircraft and negotiate seat availability with the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

They feel that Air India and Air India Express should ponder over launching morning flights to Delhi, and services to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai in the domestic sector. IndiGo has potential to operate additional flights to Pune and new services to Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

While raising the need for increased connectivity for Coimbatore, Coimbatore MP P. Ganapathy Rajkumar pointed out in the Lok Sabha recently that Tamil Nadu had urged the Minister of Civil Aviation to include Coimbatore airport as a ‘point of call’ in the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) and in the ASEAN BASA, which India has signed for international flight operations to and from various Indian cities by foreign carriers.

He said that the current BASA and ASEAN BASA agreements primarily benefited six metropolitan cities and eighteen tier II cities, allowing an unlimited number of international flights by foreign carriers. These agreements failed to accommodate the growing demand for international flights to fast-developing tier II cities like Coimbatore, which are currently excluded from the list of ‘point of call’.

In an aviation conclave held in Coimbatore, several international airlines expressed interest in operating flights from Coimbatore to key destinations such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Dubai, Muscat and Doha. These carriers were unable to get rights to operate in Coimbatore as the city is not a ‘point of call’ for them, the MP highlighted.

“Until the completion of the new international airport, which may be in 2029, the Airport Authority of India should build a small terminal near the existing building to cater exclusively for international flights with a capacity to handle two flights at a time. This new facility can be built in 10 months which will ensure the existing building can be used more by the domestic passengers with an increase in flight operations until 2029”, said J. Sathish, Director of KGF.

At present, Coimbatore airport has 58 flights (29 arrivals and 29 departures) in the domestic sector and eight (four arrivals and four departures) in the international sector per day.

Published - December 17, 2024 07:35 pm IST