More flights to London, Maldives, Agatti, Bangkok during summer

Kochi, Mar 7  Cochin International Airport Ltd. (CIAL) has announced its summer schedule, which will be effective from March 31 to October 26.
A total of 1628 weekly operations against the 1330 operations for the ongoing winter schedule is the highlight of this schedule. Additional domestic services to Agatti, Hyderabad, and Bangalore are also enlisted in the summer schedule in line with surging passenger preferences.
The announced schedule will include 29 airlines, of which 26 are operating in the international sector. Indigo tops the list with 49 weekly departures to international destinations, whereas Air India Express will have 41 departure operations per week.
There will be 66 weekly departures to Abu Dhabi alone. Doha comes in second with 46 operations, whereas Dubai comes in third with 45 operations from Kochi.
Thai Airways will commence tri-weekly premium flights to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport, and Thai Lion Air will operate daily flights to Bangkok Don Mueng airport.
Akasa Air will commence its operation in the international sector with daily flights to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and Jeddah. Etihad operates an additional 7 weekly flights to Abu Dhabi, and 5 weekly flights to Kuala Lumpur will be operated by AirAsia Berhad.
Indigo will operate an additional flight to Doha, and SpiceJet announced an additional daily flight to Male. Air India, which now operates tri-weekly flights to London-Gatwick airport on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, expands its operations with an additional flight per week. Jazeera Airways and Saudia will commence additional weekly flights to Kuwait and Jeddah, respectively.
CIAL’s efforts to expand services on busy routes and introduce regional routes have garnered positive feedback. Recent tourism development in Lakshadweep has also sparked increased interest.
Currently, in the ongoing winter schedule, there are 10 weekly departure flights to Agatti, all operated by Alliance Air. Now it will increase to 16 as Indigo commences daily flights to Agatti.
Air India Express will operate two additional daily flights to Hyderabad, and Akasa Air and Vistara will operate two additional daily flights to Bangalore. Currently, there are 97 weekly services to Bangalore. Indigo, Air India Express, and Akasha Air will operate an additional 14 weekly services.
With this, an average of 16 flights will operate in the Kochi-Bangalore sector every day. Also, Indigo will commence daily flights to the new domestic sector, Calicut.
The flight from Calicut will depart at 8:00 in the morning and reach Kochi at 09:30. The return flight from Kochi is at 13:35 and will reach Calicut at 14:35.
The domestic sector-wise weekly flight status in CIAL’s 2024 summer schedule includes 122 flights to Bangalore, 71 to Delhi, 68 to Mumbai, 61 to Hyderabad, 49 to Chennai, 16 to Agathi, 7 flights each to Ahmedabad, Goa, Kannur, Kolkata, Pune, and Thiruvananthapuram, and 5 to Salem. This makes a total weekly movement of 814 arrivals and departures.
CIAL Managing Director S. Suhas said that the company is making vigorous efforts to adapt and innovate in response to the evolving landscape of the Indian aviation sector, as CIAL is the only airport in Kerala to handle 10 million passengers in a calendar year.
Also, CIAL is the 4th largest airport in the country in terms of international traffic. “CIAL is actively preparing and formulating strategies to accommodate this growth, devising new route maps for the future. As evident, there is a definite increase in the number of domestic flight services, and additional services to many Gulf cities are firmly scheduled for commencement. With a continued focus, CIAL aims to solidify Kochi's status as a key hub for air travel in South India," said Suhas.
CIAL, renowned as the world’s first airport fully powered by solar energy, is pioneering an initiative to produce green hydrogen in collaboration with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), marking its distinction as the world's first airport to venture into this endeavour and further advancing its green initiatives.