Amid an upswing in the passenger traffic in the financial year 2023-2024 at the Tiruchi International Airport, tourism and travel circles feel that introduction of flights to new overseas destinations would spur growth.
The increase was recorded both in international and domestic passenger categories. Tiruchi is the second busiest airport in Tamil Nadu after Chennai in respect of overseas travellers. International flights outnumber domestic flights in Tiruchi airport.
The number of international passengers recorded at Tiruchi airport was 13.05 lakh during the 2023-2024 fiscal reporting an increase of 15.1 % over the previous financial year (2022-2023) figure of 11.34 lakh.
In respect of domestic movements, it was 4.59 lakh in the 2023-2024 fiscal as compared to 3.80 lakh in the 2022-2023 recording an increase of 20.7%. The overall increase in passenger movement (international and domestic put together) was 16.5% at Tiruchi airport in 2023-2024 fiscal, Tiruchi Airport Director P. Subramani said.
Seven international airlines, including Air India Express, Air Asia, and Sri Lankan Airlines were operating to 10 overseas destinations from Tiruchi airport until March 2024. However, in March-end VietJet airline, which had launched direct flight services between Tiruchi and Vietnam in early November 2023, suspended its operations all of a sudden citing “operational reasons”. At present, Tiruchi airport has direct overseas connectivity to Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Doha, Muscat, and Kuwait.
Five years ago, Tiruchi had direct connectivity to Bangkok — one of the top tourist destinations in the world with Thai AirAsia launching services in this sector. However, the services were suspended subsequently. Fits Air, a Sri Lanka-based private airline which announced in late 2022 its ambitious plan of operating services on the Colombo-Tiruchi-Colombo sector postponed the start of its operations subsequently for “operational reasons”.
“Tiruchi airport has seen enormous growth over the years with more international flights than domestic services. The airport has expanded with 10 aero bridges and modern facilities. Having such infrastructure, this has to be fully utilised not only to generate revenue to the airport but also to cater to the travellers in the region,” said S.A. Mubashir, vice-president, Trichy Tourism Federation.
Untapped potential
Other than the present operations to some destinations in the West Asia sector, there is immense traffic potential to other destinations such as Riyadh and Damam as well, said Mr. Mubashir while suggesting that marketing the airport with new facilities among airlines was also essential.
It is not only in the West Asia and South East Asia regions, there is enormous traffic beyond to Africa, Europe, the U.S., and Canada which need connectivity. This can be done by designating Tiruchi as a point of call under the BASA (Bilateral Air Services Agreements) which would pave the way for introduction of flights to more overseas destinations, said Mr. Mubashir.
