Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) announced its summer schedule which will be effective from March 26 till October 28, 2023. A total of 1,484 weekly operations is the highlight of this schedule against 1,202 operations for the ongoing winter schedule. Additional services to Mumbai, Banglore and Hyderabad are also enlisted in the summer schedule.
CIAL's summer schedule will see 31 airlines among which 23 are international carriers operating 332 weekly departures to international destinations. Indigo tops the list with 63 weekly departures to international destinations whereas Air India Express will have 44 departure operations weekly. SpiceJet-21, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi- 20, AirAsia Berhad-18, Air Arabia-14, Emirates Air-14, Etihad Air-14, Oman Air-14, Saudi Arabian-14, Singapore Airlines- 14 are other prominent carriers operating frequent weekly services.
There will be 51 weekly departures to Abu Dhabi alone. Whereas Dubai comes second with 45 operations from Kochi. Air Arabia Abu Dhabi will operate additional 10 weekly frequencies whereas an average of 5 daily flights to Kuala Lumpur will be operated by Air Asia Berhad.
SpiceJet announced additional daily flights to Male and Riyadh whereas Indigo operates additional daily flights to Dammam and Bahrain. Indigo's daily flight to Ras-Al-Khaima led to the commencement of a new sector Ras-Al-Khaimah.
While Air India, Indigo, Vistara will operate additional daily flights to Mumbai, Go First as well as Indigo will operate flights to Hyderabad. Indigo and Akasa Air will operate daily flights to Bangalore. In the domestic sector, weekly flight status in CIAL's 2023 summer schedule includes 131 flights to Banglore, 73 to Mumbai, 64 to Delhi and 55 to Hyderabad, 35 to Chennai and 7 flights each to Agathi, Ahmedabad, Goa, Kannur, Kolkata, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram. This makes a total weekly movement of 742 arrival and departure each.Over the past ten years, the aviation sector in India has undergone significant expansion and transformation. With more people choosing to travel by air than ever before, India is now the third-largest domestic market in the world, behind only China and the United States. Additionally, the industry is anticipated to benefit from increased efficiency and cost savings as a result of technological advancements like automation and artificial intelligence.
CIAL Managing Director S Suhas, IAS said that the company is strenuously trying to reinvent itself to accommodate the developments in the Indian aviation sector, as CIAL being the 3rd largest airport in the country in terms of international traffic. Indian aviation is going to witness a surge in both terms of volume and a 17% growth in the domestic sector. "CIAL is preparing and designing strategies to adapt to that growth and contrives new route maps for the future, as we believe we will make Kochi a hub for air traffic in South India", Suhas added.
During the post-pandemic period, CIAL is almost witnessing 96% of passengers at par with that of the pre-pandemic era.
Additionally, CIAL has recently successfully commissioned its exquisite Business Jet Terminal which eyes for a surge in affordable chartered flying.
( With inputs from ANI )
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