THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a long break, the Trivandrum International Airport is all set to welcome more flights and passengers as a considerable increase in services is expected by the end of this month, and the next month. The connectivity to Gulf countries and Bengaluru, the sectors hugely in demand, will be increased.
It is learnt that many airlines have applied to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to increase their services. The increase in the number of air services is also expected to bring down the airfare, thereby making air travel affordable and help in increasing connectivity.
“Many air carriers have applied to the DGCA for permission to increase their services. By April, more flights are expected to operate from the airport,” sources at the Thiruvananthapuram airport said. The weekly schedule of domestic services has already been increased from 60 to 79, including three daily flights to Bengaluru. “A majority of the passengers from the capital are towards Bengaluru and Gulf countries, which are the hotspots. Along with these, the number of air services to Delhi and Pune will also be increased,” sources said.
Now, Indigo airlines operate 20 services a week to Bengaluru. There are daily services to Kochi and Kannur also. It is learnt that new services include flights to Doha, Dubai, Muscat and Sharjah which have been suspended owing to Covid restrictions two years ago. A new flight service to Durgapur in West Bengal will start from March 27. The daily service will have a stop at Bengaluru.
“The flight service is targeted at migrant workers. Already a good percent are depending on air services for this. Durgapur is connected to all the north-eastern states and this service will let the migrant workers reach their homeland without losing days, compared to other modes of transportation. The workers also prefer this as they won’t lose their working days and wages,” said the source. This will provide the connectivity between north-eastern states from south Kerala and south Tamil Nadu. As per the state government statistics, over 30 lakh people from other states are working in Kerala. The majority of them are from Bengal and its neighbouring states.
However, efforts by the state government and airport management to make the airport as a point of call for direct flights to Australia and New Zealand haven’t been successful yet. In Rajya Sabha, MP John Brittas on Monday posed a question to Minister of Civil Aviation V K Singh regarding the flight connectivity from Trivandrum to Australia and New Zealand. In his reply, the minister said that a letter towards this was received from the state government in February. He said that due to a significant imbalance in the number of points of call in favour of foreign carriers, the Central government isn’t granting any non-metro airport as a new point of call to any foreign carrier for the purpose of operating passenger services.