KOCHI: With Gulf countries lifting the ban on flights from India, Kochi airport is witnessing a steady rise in the number of flyers after a lull in the last 12 months. The passenger traffic increased by 14% in the first week of September as compared to the same period in August. “While the airport handled 11,338 passengers per day in August first week, the figure jumped to 12,903 this month,” an official of Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) said.
As per the data sourced from CIAL, the airport witnessed an increase of 14% in international passengers in August from July. A total of 92,104 passengers travelled abroad in August from the airport, whereas the number of passengers in July was just 29,253.
Boosting global connectivity, the airport has also succeeded in enhancing European connectivity by scheduling three flights from and to London in a week. “With this, the number of flight services has increased to 58 from 54 in August and 41 in July,” said the official. It is hoped that the airport will resume its intra-state services in its winter schedule (October to March). “We hope in the coming days, the passenger traffic will see a further surge.”
The airport also resumed its Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram service on Monday and Friday. “The Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram service is a positioned flight coming from Kuwait and then scheduled for domestic travel. It is queued till September 27,” he said. With more flights resuming services in both domestic and international sectors, the airport will gradually regain its passenger traffic.
As per the data, an average of 88.32% increase in passenger movement — both departure and arrival — in the international sector was recorded in August when compared to July. The airport witnessed 85,196 international and 1,34,904 domestic passengers in July and the numbers rose to 1,60,448 international and 1,94,433 domestic passengers in August.
Before the Covid outbreak, the airport handled 30,000 passengers per day, which dipped to 15,000 per day during the first wave and further to 2,500 to 3,000 passengers per day during the second wave.