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

Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) has announced its Winter Timing which will come into effect from October 27 to March 29, 2025. A total of 1,576 weekly operations are the highlight against 1,480 operations for the ongoing Summer Timing 2024 .

The summer schedule will feature 28 airlines, among which 26 are international carriers operating 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 have 41 weekly departure operations. 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 prominent airlines that operate frequent weekly services.

As per the new winter timetable, the total number of weekly services to the UAE alone will be 134. There will be 67 weekly departures to Abu Dhabi alone, while Dubai comes in second with 46 operations from Kochi. Etihad will operate seven additional weekly flights to Abu Dhabi, while VietJet is set to operate daily flights to Vietnam. Thai Airways increases frequency from 3 to 5 weekly premium flights to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. With this, 15 weekly services will be provided to Bangkok from Kochi.

Coming to the domestic sector, the weekly flight status in CIAL’s Winter 2024 schedule 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 , 13 for Pune, 7 each for Calicut, Goa, Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram and 5 for Salem.

Air India Express will operate additional 10 weekly flights to Bangalore, 7 weekly flights to Chennai, 6 weekly flights 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, covering international and domestic services.

CIAL entered the 1,000 crore club in the financial year 2023-24 and became the only airport in Kerala to facilitate 10 million passengers in a calendar year as well as a financial year.

CIAL Director General S. Suhas said the company is trying hard to reinvent itself to accommodate the growing demands of the Indian aviation sector. Management is focused on upgrading infrastructure to serve the growing number of passengers and is implementing advanced technologies at every passenger touchpoint to improve the travel experience. “CIAL is devising innovative strategies to manage this expansion and charting new flight paths for the future, with the vision of transforming Kochi into a central hub for air travel in South India,” he added.