Cochin International Airport (CIAL) established itself as the third airport in the country in terms of international traffic for three consecutive months from July 2021, the press note said on Sunday.
CIAL anticipates a fairly high growth in international traffic for the month of October as more foreign carriers schedule frequent services from Kochi in which the latest one being the Sri Lankan Airlines which started daily operations to Colombo from Sunday.
With this, CIAL is handling 58 international arrival or departure operations a day for the month of October. CIAL Managing Director S Suhas IAS has informed that the airport witnessed significant growth in traffic during September and schedules more international flights for October.
"We are optimistic as the world has started to see a revival in all sectors. Global aviation is also responding to it. We hope that our international connectivity will rise to 70 per cent of the pre-pandemic period in next month whereas the domestic aircraft movement to near normalcy in winter schedule which is expected to commence in next month. CIAL has rolled out several initiatives to increase connectivity," Suhas said.
The airport handled 85,395 international passengers in July, 1,57,289 in August and 1,94,900 in September. The cumulative passenger volume, comprising of international and domestic, for the month of September was 3,70,044, the press note further said.
CIAL has initiated an aggressive campaign to reach out to foreign carriers during the last three months period. Facilities were established at the terminal to boost the confidence of both the passengers and airlines.
The airport now handles an average of 106 aircraft movements a day comprising of both international and domestic operations; whereas daily average passenger footfalls stand around 14,500. The airport now facilitates flights to all the Middle East destinations, London, Male and Colombo, an official statement said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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