Coimbatore airport gearing up

With more number of IT firms and multi-national companies belonging to various sectors expected to open shop in the cotton city in the next two years, the Coimbatore airport is gearing up itself for rapid expansion and upgradation. A master plan for the expansion of the airport at a cost of Rs 57 crore in 18 months is under implementation. An integrated cargo complex, a parallel taxi way for ensuring faster handling of aircraft movement, increasing the runway length from 8,500 m to 9,700 m and an additional terminal building with aero bridges for handling international aircraft are on the cards.

The runway length was recently increased from 7,500 ft to 8,500 ft. The airport is all set to witness the entry of two more domestic airliners and an international low-cost carrier soon. The airport is more likely to witness the entry of two more domestic airliners within a month to operate services on the Coimbatore-Pondicherry and Coimbatore-Ahmedabad sectors. In the next phase, one of the airlines is planning to fly to Kochi and Agatti (Lakshadweep). An airline has plans for a connecting flight to Tirupati. Airport sources said that Jagson Airlines has expressed interest to operate a morning service on the P u d u c h e r r y - C o i m b a t o r e - Puducherry sector. The airliner is planning to deploy an 18-seater Dornier aircraft on this sector. The same airline will offer a connecting service to Tirupati from Pondicherry. It has plans to operate services from Coimbatore to Kochi and Agatti in Lakshadweep in the next phase.

The two domestic airliners have submitted an expression of interest. The airlines were complying with the procedural formalities and the services would start after a formal clearance from AAI authorities, officials confirmed. At present, there are five airlines — Go Air, Jet Airways, Indian, Paramount and Air Deccan — operating services to Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kozhikode, Mumbai and New Delhi. There are 17 aircraft movements a day (includes both landing and take-off). Indian is also operating three services a week from Chennai to Sharjah via Coimbatore and Kochi. K Hemalatha, director, Coimbatore airport, said that the city is becoming a favourable destination for a number of international carriers that have evinced interest in starting their operations from Coimbatore.

Air Arabia became the very first international carrier to start its operations to and from Coimbatore with its twice-a-week flight service. “Eventually, we plan to make it as a thrice a week service from this November,” said Kyle Haywood, commercial director, Air Arabia. To join the bandwagon is Silk Air, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, that would be launching its service between Coimbatore and Singapore later this month. This will be a three-day-a-week service between the two cities. The flight would be on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from Singapore. Coimbatore becomes SilkAir’s third destination in south India after Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

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