Cochin International Airport will have 1,628 weekly operations as part of its summer schedule against 1,330 during the winter schedule.
The summer schedule, which will be effective from March 31 to October 26, will see 26 of the 29 airlines operating to destinations abroad. The schedule has additional domestic services to Agatti, Hyderabad, and Bangalore in view of the increasing passenger patronage.
Indigo tops the list with 49 weekly departures to international destinations whereas Air India Express will have 41 departure operations weekly. There will be 66 weekly departures to Abu Dhabi alone. Doha comes second with 46 operations whereas Dubai comes third with 45 operations from Kochi, according to a communication.
Thai Airways will commence tri-weekly premium flights to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport and Thai Lion Air will operate daily flights to Bangkok Don Mueng airport. Akasa Air will commence its operation in the international sector with daily flights to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and Jeddah.
Etihad operates additional 7 weekly flights to Abu Dhabi and 5 weekly flights to Kuala-Lumpur will be operated by AirAsia Berhad. Indigo will operate an additional flight to Doha and SpiceJet announced an additional daily flight to Male. Air India, which now operates tri-weekly flights to London- Gatwick airport on every Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, will expand its operations with an additional flight per week. Jazeera Airways and Saudia will commence additional 2 weekly flights to Kuwait and Jeddah respectively, it said.
The authorities said that the efforts to expand services on busy routes and introduce regional routes have won positive response. The recent tourism development in Lakshadweep has also sparked increased interest.
Currently, there are 10 weekly departure flights to Agatti, all operated by Alliance Air, in the ongoing winter schedule. It will now increase to 16, with Indigo commencing daily flights to Agatti.
Air India Express will operate additional 2 daily flights to Hyderabad and Akasa Air, Vistara will operate additional daily flights to Bangalore. Currently there are 97 weekly services to Bangalore. Indigo, Air India Express and Akasha Air will operate an additional 14 weekly services. With this, an average of 16 flights will operate in the Kochi-Bengaluru sector every day.
Indigo will also commence daily flights to Kozhikode. The flight will depart at 08:30 a.m. and reach Kochi at 09:30 a.m. The return flight from Kochi is at 1:35 a.m. and will reach Kozhikode at 2:35 a.m.
S. Suhas, Managing Director of Cochin International Airport Limited, said that it is actively preparing and formulating strategies to accommodate this growth, devising new route maps for the future. “There is a definite increase in the number of domestic flight services. The additional services to many Gulf cities are firmly scheduled for commencement,” he added.
