Cochin International Airport announces winter schedule with 1,576 weekly flights

Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) has announced its winter flight schedule which will be valid from October 27 to March 29, 2025. A total of 1,576 weekly flights is the peak compared to 1,480 flights in the current 2024 summer schedule.

In the summer schedule, 28 airlines, including 26 international airlines, will operate 336 weekly departures to international destinations, a press release said.

Air India Express tops the list with 51 weekly departures to international destinations, while IndiGo will offer 41 weekly departures. Etihad – 28, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi – 28, Air Asia – 18, Air India – 17, Air Arabia, Akasa, Emirates, Oman Air, Singapore Airlines – all 14, are other well-known airlines that offer frequent weekly flights.

According to the new winter schedule, the total number of weekly connections to the United Arab Emirates alone will be 134. There will be 67 weekly departures to Abu Dhabi alone, while Dubai comes second with 46 flights from Kochi. Etihad will offer an additional seven weekly flights to Abu Dhabi, while VietJet will offer daily flights to Vietnam. Thai Airways increases frequency from 3 to 5 weekly premium flights to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. There will be 15 weekly connections from Kochi to Bangkok.

In the domestic sector, the weekly flight status in CIAL’s winter schedule 2024 includes 112 flights to Bangalore, 75 to Mumbai, 63 to Delhi, 61 to Chennai, 52 to Hyderabad, 15 flights to Agatti, 14 to Ahmedabad and Kolkata and 13 to Pune, 7 each to Calicut, Goa, Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram and 5 to Salem.

Air India Express will additionally operate 10 weekly flights to Bangalore, 7 weekly flights to Chennai, 6 to Pune and 5 weekly flights to Hyderabad. Akasa Air will operate additional daily flights to Ahmedabad. This results in a total of 788 arrivals and 788 departures per week, comprising both international and domestic flights.

CIAL joined the Rs 1,000 crore club in the financial year 2023-24 and became the only airport in Kerala to handle 10 million passengers in both a calendar year and a financial year.

CIAL Managing Director S. Suhas said the company is aggressively trying to reinvent itself to meet the growing demands in the Indian aviation sector. Management is focused on modernizing infrastructure to accommodate increasing passenger numbers and implementing advanced technologies at every passenger touchpoint to improve the travel experience. “CIAL is developing innovative strategies to manage this expansion and planning new flight routes for the future with a vision of transforming Kochi into a central hub for air travel in South India,” he added.