Thiruvananthapuram airport relieved as Kochi begins flight ops

Thiruvananthapuram: With Cochin International Airport re-opening on Wednesday after the floods, the Thiruvananthapuram airport will heav a sigh of relief as it had to handle about 1,000 additional aircraft movements during the past two weeks.

Since August 15, as many as 726 flights movements scheduled from Nedumbaserry airport were handled by the Thiruvananthapuram airport. This including over 500 international operations and the remaining domestic. As many as 176 military flights and 184 military choppers also operated from Thiruvananthapuram airport's technical area from August 15 to 27.

Sources said that the Thiruvananthapuram airport received additional revenue of nearly Rs 3 crore as airport charges from the additional scheduled flight movements. However, no charges were applicable on military flight movements.

Thiruvananthapuram international airport director Mr George Tharakan said that the unexpected rush of aircraft movements could be handled as all stakeholders cooperated. “All agencies like emigration and security wings had to reschedule their work deployments to manage the rush of passengers, while agencies like KSRTC also geared up to offer road transport facilities to the passengers. Though there was a scarcity in aviation fuel supply at some point, it was sorted out soon with the intervention of the state government,” he said.