THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major step toward attracting more national and international airline operators to Thiruvananthapuram airport, a high-level meeting will be organised in the capital next week with various stakeholders. The event will be organised by various organisations in the city including Trivandrum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TCCI).
Shashi Tharoor, MP, along with officials of Thiruvananthapuram International Airport Limited (ATIAL), will lead the meeting. The meeting is scheduled for September 2 and all airline operators are expected to participate. MPs John Brittas, Adoor Prakash and N K Premachandran will also attend.
The other participants include Jeet Adani, head of airports, Adani Group, V K Mathews, IBS chairman, and Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys co-founder. “It is a first major step to woo airline operators to Thiruvananthapuram airport. The airport needs more flights and connectivity to various destinations. All airline operators will take part in the meeting. The meeting will ensure more flights from the airport in future. Various airlines, including the newly launched Akasa Air, will also participate,” said S N Reghuchandran Nair, TCCI president.
ATIAL gears up for major expansion
Meanwhile, a master plan is being prepared by ATIAL for the development of the airport to global standards. ATIAL will also present the masterplan before the airline operators at the meeting. As per the masterplan, there will be significant makeover for domestic as well as international terminals. The masterplan will be finalised only after getting clearance from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The masterplan also proposes a five-star hotel near the international terminal and a new air traffic control (ATC) tower.
The average number of passengers relying on Thiruvananthapuram airport has doubled in the past two years. Sources said there is a 120% increase in international flights and 110% increase in domestic flights on average per week. At present, 9,000 plus passengers are using the airport on a daily basis, while it was 4,000 on an average two years ago, airport sources said. The number of domestic passengers passing through Thiruvananthapuram Airport has doubled in the past nine months.
The airport handled 1.31 lakh passengers in April 2022. This is an increase from 60,145 passengers in October last year. The number of domestic passengers in March was 97,633, while the April figure was 1,31,274. Airlines such as Indigo, Air India, Spice Jet, and Vistara are currently operating services from Thiruvananthapuram to destinations including Kochi, Kannur, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Durgapur, and New Delhi.
Bengaluru is the busiest destination, with 35 weekly services. This is followed by Chennai, with 22 services weekly, Delhi with 20 services and Mumbai with 15 services in a week. IndiGo tops the table with 98 services in a week. According to a source at the airport, with an increase in the number of international and domestic air services, passengers have started choosing Thiruvananthapuram airport over others. The travellers who preferred the airport in Kochi earlier have started coming to Thiruvananthapuram now.