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April 1 will see around 2,700 foreign tourists transiting through Cochin International Airport on a cruise transfer event.
For the fourth year in a row, there will be air-to-sea and sea-to-air transfer for 1,350 incoming and 1,350 outgoing passengers to the luxury liner Aida Diva .
Around 300 passengers will be brought in by Air Berlin (from Dusseldorf) A 330-200 and 270 each in AB 757 and B 767 flights by Condor Airlines from Frankfurt. Another 500 passengers coming by scheduled carriers such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways will also be shifted to the luxury liner.
Similar number will disembark from the cruise vessel at Kochi Port and will be transferred by these chartered flights back to Germany.
Facilitation meet
At the facilitation meeting held here and attended by the agencies concerned, officials committed their best service to make the transfer event successful and provide all assistance.
The aircraft will be handled by BWFS (Bird World-wide Flight Services), the ground-handling agency at the airport. The tour arrangement and passenger transfer assistance is being provided by Intersight Tours and Travels.
Aida Diva , which started this leg from Singapore, will reach Kochi from Colombo and will move to Dubai port via Mangalore, and Goa ports.
In the last three years, CIAL and its associated agencies had provided all services to the passengers, following which Kochi was chosen as the cruise transfer destination.
Advantage Kochi
Senior port officials said here that the numerous advantages of the port have enabled Kochi to become the sole turnaround port for cruise ships in India. Cruise ship companies look for ports which have a good international airport in the vicinity. They also look for efficient customs and immigration clearance system and the availability of good supplies at turnaround ports.
Cruise passengers and captains of ships generally give a good feed back about Kochi. This gives a fillip to tourism and travel trade, the officials said.
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