“Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) is establishing itself as the country’s third airport in terms of international traffic for three consecutive months from July 2021,” he said in a statement.

The airport now handles an average of 106 aircraft movements per day, comprising both international and domestic operations, while the average daily passenger footfall stands at around 14,500. The airport facilitates flights to all Middle Eastern destinations, London, Male and Colombo, CIAL said.

CIAL predicts fairly high growth in international traffic for the month of October as more and more foreign carriers schedule frequent flights from Kochi, the latest being Sri Lankan Airlines, which has started daily operations to Colombo from Sunday.

“With this, CIAL manages 58 international arrival / departure operations per day for the month of October,” he said.

CIAL chief executive S Suhas said the airport saw significant traffic growth in September and scheduled more international flights for October.

“We are optimistic as the world has started to see a revival in all sectors. Global aviation is responding to this as well. We hope that our international connectivity will reach 70 percent of the pre-pandemic period next month as the movement of domestic planes at near normal in the winter program which is expected to begin next month, ”Suhas said.

Sri Lankan Airlines resumed daily service to Colombo on October 3. Sri Lankan flight UL 165 arrives at COK at 9:45 a.m. and departs as UL 166 to Colombo at 10:45 a.m. daily except Sunday. On Sunday, the pick-up / drop-off is scheduled for 0845/0945.