Coimbatore: As the construction work has reached the final stage, the number of parking bays at the Coimbatore airport will soon be increased to 16 (now 9).
Coimbatore: As the construction work has reached the final stage, the number of parking bays at the Coimbatore airport will soon be increased to 16 (now 9).
Coimbatore International Airport plays a vital role in catering to the aviation needs of the surrounding seven districts including Coimbatore. On an average, each year more than 25 lakh people use both the domestic and international flight services from the airport.
While on the one side the International Airport expansion scheme is still pending due to land not handed over to the Airport Authorities of India, considering the future needs, the airport management has taken the initiative to implement various face-lift and development activities which include constructing seven new parking bays inside the premises.
Coimbatore International Airport director, R. Mahalingam told SimpliCity, “Coimbatore Airport continues to be one of the fastest growing airports. Previously 3 million passengers used the airport, whereas it reduced to 2.8 million last year. Except a few airports almost all the other airports established across the nation have shown negative growth.
This is mainly due to the COVID-19 outbreak and this impact was witnessed at the Coimbatore airport from January 2020 itself. From that time onwards, passenger movement started to reduce. This is the reason why the total number of passengers has come down from 30 lakhs to 28 lakhs.”
He further said, “Since the COVID-19 infection is still doing the rounds, a negative impact is expected in the overall airport growth this year too.We started the construction of 7 new bays and in between they got affected due to the shortage of man power and now all this work has resumed and reached the final stage.
Within 3 months the entire work will be finished and all the new parking bays will be opened for operation. At present there are totally 9 parking bays functioning in the airport and when these new bays come into operation then the total aircraft bays numbers will be increased to 16. Previously repatriation flight service was witnessed rarely, whereas now we have started to witness more often."
Airport sources said, "At present the cargo flights are given a bay based on the requirements. Whereas when these 7 new bays come into operation then one bay may be allocated exclusively for cargo services."
As the construction work has come to the final stage, within next few months all of the new parking bays will be opened up for operations.
Coimbatore International Airport plays a vital role in catering to the aviation needs of the surrounding seven districts including Coimbatore. On an average, each year more than 25 lakh people use both the domestic and international flight services from the airport.
While on the one side the International Airport expansion scheme is still pending due to land not handed over to the Airport Authorities of India, considering the future needs, the airport management has taken the initiative to implement various face-lift and development activities which include constructing seven new parking bays inside the premises.
Coimbatore International Airport director, R. Mahalingam told SimpliCity, “Coimbatore Airport continues to be one of the fastest growing airports. Previously 3 million passengers used the airport, whereas it reduced to 2.8 million last year. Except a few airports almost all the other airports established across the nation have shown negative growth.
This is mainly due to the COVID-19 outbreak and this impact was witnessed at the Coimbatore airport from January 2020 itself. From that time onwards, passenger movement started to reduce. This is the reason why the total number of passengers has come down from 30 lakhs to 28 lakhs.”
He further said, “Since the COVID-19 infection is still doing the rounds, a negative impact is expected in the overall airport growth this year too.We started the construction of 7 new bays and in between they got affected due to the shortage of man power and now all this work has resumed and reached the final stage.
Within 3 months the entire work will be finished and all the new parking bays will be opened for operation. At present there are totally 9 parking bays functioning in the airport and when these new bays come into operation then the total aircraft bays numbers will be increased to 16. Previously repatriation flight service was witnessed rarely, whereas now we have started to witness more often."
Airport sources said, "At present the cargo flights are given a bay based on the requirements. Whereas when these 7 new bays come into operation then one bay may be allocated exclusively for cargo services."
As the construction work has come to the final stage, within next few months all of the new parking bays will be opened up for operations.