KOCHI: Passenger traffic at Kochi Airport is witnessing a steady growth and it could touch the pre-pandemic level soon. The airport handled 6.4 million passengers this year until October, compared to 10 million passengers and 71,871 aircraft movement in 2018-2019.
“Kochi, the third busiest airport in the country, is getting back to its pre-pandemic traffic level slowly. Till now, passenger traffic has touched almost 80-90% and it will be back to pre-pandemic times by December,” said a spokesman with Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL). Of the 6.4 million passengers, 31.96 lakh were international and 32.80 lakh domestic. The aircraft movements in international and domestic sectors were 20,241 and 26,313, respectively.
The months of July (3,89,194) and September (41,0,061) witnessed the biggest passenger traffic in international and domestic sectors, respectively. Meanwhile, tour operators across the state are looking forward to a fruitful winter holiday season that runs from the first week of December to mid-January.
“Compared to the last two-three years, Kerala will witness a huge inflow of domestic tourists this holiday season. While international tourists’ percentage is sceptical, embassies worldwide are still a tad shy when it comes to issuing visas,” said New Allied Tours and Travels Managing Director K N Shastry.
“It will take some more time for non-resident Indians, including those in the Gulf countries, to fly in and out freely,” he said. As per the recently announced winter schedule --- from October 30, 2022 to March 25, 2023 --- the Kochi airport would facilitate 1,202 weekly aircraft movements as against 1,160 in the summer schedule, in international and domestic sectors.
CIAL has scheduled 327 domestic operations for the winter season, offering connectivity to 13 cities in the country. Thanks to the measures implemented for ensuring smooth connectivity during the post-pandemic era, CIAL registered a growth of 92.66 % in passenger volume and 60.06 % in aircraft movement FY 2021-22 compared to the previous fiscal.
47.58L passengers were handled and and movement of 43,195 aircraft was facilitated by the Kochi airport in 2021-22