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K.G. Kumar

EVERY once in a while, usually coinciding with the peak tourist season, travel agents and tour operators in the State capital get into a tiffy over the alleged neglect of the Trivandrum International Airport, supposedly in favour of the Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery, Kochi. Thus, last week, Mr K.V. Muraleedharan, President of the Kerala Association of Travel Agents (KATA), told a press conference: "It is 15 years since this airport got international status but due to the efforts of a coterie of politicians, airline officials and the business lobby, there has been no development."

Though the Kochi airport started functioning only a few years ago, it has outshone Trivandrum airport in most respects, particularly in ensuring comfortable and well-maintained infrastructure for travellers, as anyone who has passed through the Cochin International Airport will testify.

Considering the manner in which the Kochi airport has been able to maintain minimum international standards, it should come as no great surprise that the Civil Aviation Ministry and Air India have just decided to shift the proposed Rs 2 billion maintenance and hangar facility from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi. That decision, needless to say, has irked KATA, which sees it as yet another instance of the sptep-motherly treatment meted out to the Trivandrum International Airport.

As far as Air India and the Civil Aviation Ministry are concerned, however, the decision springs from pure business sense - Kochi has offered land and related facilities for the proposed hangar at a far cheaper price.

In that fact, surely, lies the real reason for Kochi's progress over Thiruvananthapuram. If the Trivandrum International Airport hopes to bark at the heels of Kochi, it should learn to be spiffy from the entrepreneurial point of view. Rather than complaining about the reduction of flights by Air India from 27 a week to 11, and the trimming of daily flights by Indian Airlines to thrice-a-week, the Trivandrum International Airport should begin sprucing itself up and getting rid of irritants like the irksome process of engaging a taxi to get out of the airport.

There is no better time than now to do so, especially as the Government of Kerala has just decided in principle to set up the first State-sponsored airline company in the country. Aimed mainly at Gulf-bound passengers, the proposed airline would be modelled after Air-India's budget carrier, Air-India Express, the Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy, told reporters after a Cabinet meeting last week.

The airline, estimated to cost roughly Rs 300 crore, would have 26 per cent government equity and the rest of the amount would be raised from non-resident Keralites. To the knowledgeable, this modus operandi would seem suspiciously familiar.

And for good reason; that was precisely the route adopted by the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) to set up the Kochi airport at Nedumbassery. And guess who has been asked to choose a consultant to work out a detailed report on the new airline proposal? CIAL, of course.

To be sure, this itself will be fresh ammunition for KATA and its ilk to start a fresh round of allegations and breast-beating. Rather than engage in fruitless criticism, they should realise that Kerala is large enough a market for three international airports.

After all, around 1.6 million Malayalis live abroad, almost 90 per cent of them in the Gulf, and a Centre for Development Studies survey says that 17.6 per cent of homes in Kerala now have at least one NRI in their midst. They need good, well-maintained air travel infrastructure of international standards - not the smoke of combat and fury.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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