KOCHI: Cashing in on the growing air passenger traffic from the state, two more budget airline companies are set to launch services to and from Cochin International Ltd (CIAL) from next month. Thai Lion Air and Jazeera Airways will operate flights to and from the airport, said a CIAL release. Thai Lion Air will operate a daily flight to and from Bangkok from November 16, while Jazeera Airways from Kuwait will operate six flights a week to and from Kuwait starting November 23.
The Thai Lion Air flight will arrive at Kochi at 11.20 pm every day and depart to Bangkok by 12.20 am. Thai Air Asia is already operating a daily flight between Kochi and Bangkok since 2016.
Jazeera Airways will not operate flights on Tuesday. On other days it will reach Kochi by 4.30 am and depart to Kuwait by 5.15 am. Kuwait Airways is already offering 10 services a week between Kuwait and Kochi, said the release.
More flight movements in winter schedule
CIAL’s new winter schedule which begins Saturday, will see a considerable rise in the total international and domestic flight movements from the airport than the summer schedule, said the release.
The weekly air traffic of the airport will increase from the 1,314 movements seen in the summer schedule to 1,422 aircraft movements in the winter schedule, with 340 international arrivals and departures and 371 domestic arrivals and departures. This includes additional flights.
Additional flights
As per the new winter schedule, two airline companies will hold additional international flight operations. Air Asia Berhad will operate an additional flight between Kuala Lumpur and Kochi four times a week, while Indigo will operate one additional daily flight in the Doha-Cochin-Doha sector from December 15.
Additional domestic flights will also be operated in the winter schedule. Go Air will operate an additional flight in the Lucknow-Hyderabad-Cochin sector six times a week, while Indigo will operate four additional to-and-from flights daily in the Bangalore-Cochin, Hyderabad-Cochin, Mumbai-Cochin and Delhi-Cochin routes, said the release.
As per the new schedule, there will be 93 flights to Delhi, 64 to Mumbai and 67 to Bangalore from Kochi in a week, apart from services to Chennai, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Jaipur, Kozhikode, Pune, and Ahmedabad, Agatti (Lakshadweep), Kolkata and Lucknow. There will be 59 weekly services to Dubai, 35 flights each to Abu Dhabi and Muscat; 25 to Kuala Lumpur and 13 to Singapore, said the release.