COIMBATORE: The city airport has witnessed a 27% increase in passenger traffic in the past one year, thanks to the reasonable flight fares, rise in the number of flight services, reduction in value-added tax (VAT) for early-morning and late-night flights and connectivity to more destinations.
Data released by the airport shows that 29.12 lakh people had flown in and out of the city in 2018, compared to 22.87 lakh passengers in 2017. While the domestic sector saw a growth of around 4.5 lakh passengers or 26.39%, the international sector recorded a 38.13% growth in passenger traffic at 2.43 lakh, compared to 1.76 lakh in 2017.
“The additional flights by Air India Express to Singapore and Colombo have become popular, because their fares are reasonable. Silk Air has also begun to operate daily flights during the holiday season,” said D Nandhakumar, convenor of Kongu Global Forum. “The passenger traffic will grow further if we get a flight to Dubai, which we have been demanding for long.”
Airport authorities said the government’s decision to reduce VAT on aviation fuel for flights parking overnight in the airport has helped the growth to an extent. “Attracting more flights to park overnight in the city has in turn led to more early-morning and late-night flights to and from business hubs such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru, which is convenient for business travellers and those travelling for a particular function,” said a senior airport official.
The winter schedule had airlines introducing flights at more convenient timings, offering better connectivity to existing destinations like Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune. “The additional flights to New Delhi was a huge hit among the international travellers to Moscow, the USA and Europe, because otherwise they had to travel by road to Chennai or Kochi, then connect to a hub like Dubai and reach their destination,” said A Sathish, a member of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Coimbatore Infrastructure Forum.
Industrialists, however, said there was a need for Air India to make Coimbatore a hub and spoke airport like Chennai and introduce flights to Calcutta and Ahmedabad too. “The two cities are textile hubs and are in demand among the fliers from the city,” Nandhakumar said. “Making Coimbatore a hub and spoke airport is a long pending demand.”