Cochin International Airport Ltd has retained its position as the 3rd busiest airport in the country throughout 2021. This has been made possible due to fervent efforts which assured a smooth traffic and enhanced connectivity during the time of the pandemic, claim officials.

International traffic

As per the latest statistics released by Airport Authority of India, CIAL stands at third position in country in terms of international traffic in December too, a feat it has been enjoying since the beginning of the previous year. The AAI data on international traffic for December 2021 showed that Delhi Airport topped the list with 8,42,582 passengers and Mumbai airport retained its second spot with 4,51,212. CIAL registered 3,01,338 international passengers whereas Chennai Airport which is at the fourth position handled 2,46,387 international passengers.

CIAL handled a total of 43,06,661 passengers during the whole year of 2021. Of this, 18,69,690 were international passengers. The passenger volume has almost increased by a million in 2021 when compared to that of 2020.

S.Suhas, managing director, CIAL, attributed the traffic growth to the proactive measures taken by the management to attract more airlines. “Despite the spike in Covid cases, CIAL has successfully managed to facilitate a smooth traffic. A slew of measures were implemented to instill confidence in both passengers and other stakeholders. The year 2021 witnessed the resumption of direct services to UK by Air India. Singapore Airlines started operation in December and we hope that we can host services in Kochi-Bangkok sector soon’’, he said. Indian airports overall catered to a total of 25.12 million passengers in December compared to 23.23 million passengers in November. There were 19.64 million passengers in October, compared to 15.44 million in September and 14.26 million in August 2021. However, the growth in air passenger traffic has seen a slowdown since December-end because of the rapid spread of Omicron variant. The country recorded 22.13 million domestic passengers in December, up from 20.72 million in November, while international passengers rose from 2.51 million to 2.99 million in the same period.

Rapid PCR and RTPCR testing

CIAL’s timely response to the UAE’s supreme council of disaster management’s guidelines helped the airport to host the UAE services from July. Subsequently CIAL ramped up both rapid PCR and RTPCR testing and now the cumulative capacity of the three testing labs stationed at the airport enhanced to 900 at a time. The domestic sector witnessed a growth at par with pre pandemic period. As per the winter schedule which came into effect from October scheduled departures are 50 a day. e.o.m.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW