KOCHI: Kochi airport will handle a total of 1,520 weekly operations in the winter schedule — from October 26, 2025, to March 28, 2026 — the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) officials said on Tuesday.
The highlight of the winter schedule are IndiGo’s two new daily services to Thiruvananthapuram and Star Air’s Kochi-Bengaluru flight four days a week.
The winter schedule will see 27 airlines, 25 of them international carriers, operating 341 weekly departures to international destinations.
AirAsia plans to increase the frequency of operations from 11 to 21 per week while Air India will reinstate the Doha sector. Akasa will commence daily flights to Dammam.
IndiGo tops the list with 49 weekly departures to international destinations whereas Air India Express will have 47 departures weekly. Other prominent carriers operating weekly services are Etihad (28), Air Asia (21), Air Arabia Abu Dhabi (18), Akasa (17), Air India, Air Arabia, Emirates, Oman Air, Singapore Airlines (14 each), Kuwait airways, Qatar Airways (11 each), Saudia, Thai AirAsia (10 each), SpiceJet, SriLankan, Malaysia Airlines (7 each), Jazeera (5), Fly Dubai, Gulf Air, Island Aviation, Viatjet, Malindo (4 each) and Thai Lion air (3). There will be 67 weekly departures to Abu Dhabi alone.
Dubai comes second with 45 operations from Kochi airport. Other key destinations include Doha (38), Kuala Lumpur (32), Muscat (25) and Sharjah (21), Singapore (14), Male (11), Bangkok (10), Jeddah and Riyadh (8 each), while Bahrain, Colombo, Dammam and Ras Al Khaimah (7 each). Ho Chi Minh City and Phuket have four and three weekly flights, respectively.
Domestic sector
In the domestic sector, the winter schedule includes 86 weekly flights to Bengaluru, 69 to Mumbai, 63 to Delhi, 47 to Chennai, 61 to Hyderabad, 14 flights to Agatti, 13 to Ahmedabad, 14 to Pune, seven each to Calicut, Goa, Kannur and five to Salem. IndiGo will conduct two additional services to Thiruvananthapuram.
As per the new schedule, an IndiGo flight from Kannur will land at Kochi at 9.40am. This will serve the Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram sector twice a day. The departing time from Kochi will be 10am and 3.50pm, and from Thiruvananthapuram will be 1pm and 7.20pm.
Star Air will launch four weekly services on the Kochi–Bengaluru sector, while Akasa Air will begin daily operations to Ahmedabad and Navi Mumbai.
IndiGo will have daily flights to Navi Mumbai, and SpiceJet will commence daily services to Chennai and Hyderabad.
“Cochin International Airport is committed to providing the highest standards of passenger comfort, safety and seamless connectivity. Our efforts through our recent digitisation venture, CIAL 2.0, are aimed at modernising infrastructure and enhancing the travel experience,” said S Suhas, MD, CIAL. The airport is handling 1,454 operations in the ongoing summer schedule.