AAI earmarks Rs 9.73 crore for Coimbatore airport modernisation

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has earmarked about Rs 9.73 crore for the upgradation and modernisation of the Coimbatore airport in view of growing passenger and aircraft traffic at the Peelamedu civil airport.

While the airport witnessed the movement of 60,062 air passengers in December last year, by March 2006, the number went up to 65,000. An all-time increase, according to airport director C Vijayakumar.

Similarly, the number of aircraft calling at the airport has touched 1,028. At the same time, the number of airlines operating flights has also increased from two to five "� Indian, Paramount Airways, GoAir, Air Deccan and Jet Airways. The airport has apparently come a longway with 36 flights a day as against 10 last year, 15 of them being night flights, including seven arrivals and eight departures.

Attributing the rise in traffic to the entry of low-cost carriers, airport sources told Business Standard that of the 65,000 air passengers, more than 35,000 were homebound travellers, arriving from various places from within the country.

A majority of passengers leaving here head for Chennai while the Gulf and China are the main destinations for international passengers, they said.

Of the 30,000 outwardbound passengers, 60 percent take the Coimbatore-Chennai and Coimbatore- Bangalore routes. On the international route, Sharjhah is the main destination for passengers from here, thanks to the huge density of Malayalis in the region.

The passenger traffic to South East Asian countries like China and Singapore is also gaining momentum, especially in the post quota regime, i.e., after January 2005, for importing textile machinery and spindles.

"To overcome the problem of over crowding, the AAI has started construction of three more parking bays, which are likely to be ready by July this year, at an estimated cost of Rs 4.5 crore," Vijayakumar added. This would scale up the number of parking bays to six, besides an isolated bay.

The runway also would be expanded to 10,000 feet from the present 9,000 feet. The work for acquiring 60.98 acres land has begun with AAI setting aside Rs 4.93 crore for improvements at the airport to ease congestions at the arrivals and departure terminals.

The immediate beneficiary of all these facilities would be the Kingfisher Airlines, whose flights are scheduled to start their operations from the Coimbatore airport by next month. Kingfisher would initially operate three flights. However, the routes and other details are not available. The Coimbatore airport registered an annual turnover of Rs 3 crore last fiscal, said Vijayakumar.