Coimbatore : Coimbatore Airport is witnessing a surge in air passenger traffic with better connectivity to various international destinations and a plan to build additional infrastructure on the cards. Compared to 2017, the air passenger traffic in 2018 has spiked to 27 percent, while cargo has also seen positive growth.
Coimbatore : Coimbatore Airport is witnessing a surge in air passenger traffic with better connectivity to various international destinations and a plan to build additional infrastructure on the cards. Compared to 2017, the air passenger traffic in 2018 has spiked to 27 percent, while cargo has also seen positive growth.
According to a DGCA report, there has been a notable increase in the passenger and freight traffic at Coimbatore International Airport over the past few months. The addition of more domestic flight connectivity to the top five cities in the country from Coimbatore International Airport has attributed to the increase in passenger footfalls. Reports say that around 2,58,821 domestic passengers have visited Coimbatore International Airport in December 2018. This is the highest passenger volume handled by Coimbatore Airport thus far.
One of the major reasons that are attributed for the notable increase in domestic connectivity is the decision of the Government of Tamil Nadu to reduce the VAT for Airline turbine fuel from 29 percent to 1 percent for late night and early morning flights. This move certainly drew the attention of the airliners and encouraged them to park flights overnight at the Coimbatore International Airport. This welcome announcement by the TN government in August 2018 brought in more base flights to Coimbatore and thus increased the overall connectivity.
Data and facts:
Total Air passengers at CJB- 2017 - 22,87,962, in the year 2018 - 29,12,338 and percentage of growth is 27.29.
Domestic traffic from Coimbatore airport has risen to 26.39 % with 21,11,941 passengers in 2017 and 26,69,203 passengers in 2018.
International traffic in 2017 - 1,76,021 and in 2018 - 2,43,135 with a 38.13 % growth.
With more flights to be added in the near future, the growth is expected to increase multi-fold. As far as domestic traffic is concerned Chennai tops the list with 85041 passengers flying in and out of CBE airport, followed by New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengalaru.