Kerala - Kochi   

Kochi airport set to expand its wings

KOCHI: To cash in on the country’s rapidly-growing aviation sector, Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) is positioning itself as a major player in South India.

The airport is now focussing on ensuring regional connectivity from Kochi to major destinations in South India.

“We aim to establish the Kochi airport as the hub for southern regional connectivity so that more passengers converge here, making the operation of services to destinations in Europe and the United States feasible,” Shriram Bharath, managing director of CIAL, said on Friday.The strategy is to encourage airline companies to set up shop in Kochi and operate services to Coimbatore, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. “We will offer concessions in airport charges to those airlines, that choose Kochi as the hub of their operations,” Mr. Bharath said.

Such an arrangement ensures that these airlines return to Kochi, the base station, with passengers from various southern destinations. This would also mean that there would be sufficient number of passengers on the European and American sectors from Kochi whenever the services are launched.

Mr. Bharath said that lack of enough passengers to fill wide-bodied aircraft, which are deployed for long-haul services, was cited as the main reason by airlines for not launching services to destinations in Europe and the United States from Kochi.

Besides, the airport also plans to promote intra-State connectivity by operating Kozhikode-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi services, Mr. Bharath said.

There is good news for the operators of the budget carriers as well. “We are willing to set up separate terminals for budget carriers that make Kochi their base and operate a certain number of services,” Mr. Bharath said.

A promise to this effect was also made by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who is also Chairman of CIAL, during a meeting with airline companies’ officials in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.

Mr. Bharath denied the allegation made by a private airline during the meeting that the Kochi airport charged exorbitant landing and parking fees. He claimed that the Kochi airport has fixed competent charges as against other airports.

He said that the airport charged between Rs.6,000 and Rs.7,000 as landing and parking fees for aircraft weighing below 45,000 kg, and Rs.15,000 for heavier aircraft. Strict direction had been given to Air India (AI), to consult CIAL before entering into ground-handling agreement with any other airline.

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