KOCHI: The Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) is inching towards the magical figure of handling 10 million passengers in a year, with 96.63 lakh passengers emplaning from there or deplaning in 2017, according to the latest data on fliers who passed via the airport in the last calendar year. It is expected to achieve the 10 million mark in the ongoing financial year even as the number of fliers handled by the state's three airports - Thiruvananthapuram and Calicut, besides CIAL - added upto 1.6 crore in the just concluded calendar year.
The airport witnessed 67,590 aircraft movements in 2017 against 61,463 in the year-ago period, logging a growth rate of 10 per cent. There are 24 airlines operating from CIAL and two more - budget carrier Jaseera airlines of Kuwait and Bangkok-based Thai Lion Air - have already announced the commencement of operations this year. Jaseera will start operations on January 18 and Thai Lion Air in the last week of February. V J Kurian, CIAL managing director, said the airport has lined up a number development activities to cater to the staggering increase in domestic aviation traffic, including the commencement of the T1 domestic terminal. “In India around 100 million passengers rely on domestic airlines on a yearly average.
The sector is witnessing a sustainable YOY growth rate of 20 per cent, which is extraordinary. With this, the airport operators have to enhance the carrying capacity by 100 per cent every four years. Our renovated domestic terminal will become operational in April 2018 which will have a peak hour handling capacity of 4,000 pax," he said.
CIAL now stands at seventh position in the country in terms of total passengers and fourth in terms of international passengers. In FY 2016-17 it handled 89.41 lakh passengers and it is expected the figure will touch 10 mn in FY 2017-18, said CIAL authorities. They further said CIAL handled 87.36 lakh passengers in 2016.
With a robust year over year (YOY) traffic growth of 10.62 per cent, 2017 witnessed a 20.28 per cent and 3.29 per cent rise in the number of domestic and international fliers with 45.28 lakh and 51.35 lakh passengers, respectively. In 2016, the airport handled 37.64 lakh passengers on domestic routes while it was 49.71 lakh on the international sector.Currently, CIAL is at seventh spot in the country in terms of the total passengers handled and fourth in terms of global travellers. In FY 2016-17 it handled 89.41 lakh passengers.