Close to 1,500 flights from Kochi airport weekly during summer: CIAL

Close to 1,500 flights would be operated every week from the Cochin International Airport as part of its summer schedule starting from March 26 till October 28 this year, CIAL said.

The summer schedule of 1,484 flight services every week would also include 332 weekly departures to international destinations by 31 airlines of which 23 are foreign carriers, the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) said in a release.

Indigo, which tops the list with 63 weekly departures to international destinations, has also started operations on a new sector -- Kochi to Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, the release said.

The domestic services will see an increase in flights to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, it said.

During the winter schedule there were 1,202 weekly services from the airport, it further said.

"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," the release said.

CIAL Managing Director S Suhas IAS said that the company was strenuously trying to reinvent itself to accommodate the developments in the Indian aviation sector, as Cochin airport was the 3rd largest in the country in terms of international traffic.

"Indian aviation is going to witness a surge in both terms of volume and a 17 per cent 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," he is quoted as having said in the release.

During the post-pandemic period, CIAL is almost witnessing 96 per cent of passengers at par with that of the pre-pandemic era, the release added.