KOCHI: Kochi is all set to get direct air connectivity with eight more cities in the country, taking the number of Indian cities with direct connectivity to 21.
The Cochin International Airport (CIAL) released its winter flight operations schedule on Friday introducing direct flight operations to Goa, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Nagpur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Jaipur and Kolkata. The airport currently operates services to 16 international destinations. The new operation schedule will come into effect on Sunday and will be in effect till March 30, 2019.
Presently, the airport operates 1,360 services per week, which will increase to 1,734 once the winter schedule comes into force. There will be 124 takeoffs and 124 landings per day. Apart from introducing services to eight new cities in the country, the frequency of many services has been increased. IndiGo and GoAir have announced new services to Goa.
The IndiGo flight to Goa will take off at 9.40 pm every day, while the GoAir service will start at 3.20 am. The GoAir service will start on November 15, while IndiGo is expected to launch the new service on November 15.
IndiGo will start services to Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam on December 1. The IndiGo service to Bhubaneswar will take off at 5.35 am every day.
The service to Visakhapatnam will leave at 1.40 pm on Tuesday and 2.10 pm on all other days. The IndiGo service to Nagpur will be launched on November 15 and the flight will leave Kochi at 9.20 pm on all days except Tuesday.
The Guwahati service will start at 5.40 am every day. Services to Lucknow and Guwahati will start on December 9. GoAir is currently operating services to Jaipur via Ahmedabad. This service will continue and IndiGo will launch new services to Kolkata and Jaipur from November 15.
The Jaipur service will leave at 3.05 pm on all days except Tuesday. The Kolkata service will take off at 7 am on all days except Sunday. CIAL operates the maximum number of 15 services to Bengaluru per day.
The GoAir will operate 7 additional services during the winter season, while IndiGo will operate 14 new services and Air India will start one new service. Meanwhile, the SpiceJet has cancelled two services and Jet Airways has scrapped three services.