Over the years, commuters and various industrial bodies in the city, including the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, have made representations, where ever possible, to operate more international flights from the city.
But it is still a dream that is yet to come true, as the shortcomings are yet to be addressed.
Stagnation
Honorary Secretary of the Resident Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) R. Raveendran said that there is stagnation in the number of international commuters handled by Coimbatore International Airport.
“This is primarily due to the inadequate international connectivity from Coimbatore,” he said.
Poor connectivity
Mr. Raveendran added that poor connectivity existed despite city being recognised internationally for its industrial activity, healthcare facilities, education institutions and upcoming businesses.
Due to inadequate international flights to Coimbatore, passengers from this part of the State and a couple of districts in Kerala, are forced to travel far to reach international airports in Tiruchi, Chennai, Kochi, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram or Bengaluru, say sources in the aviation industry.
Among six non metro airports close to Coimbatore, the airport handled the second most number of domestic passengers in July 2015 _ with more than 1.25 lakh passengers – only next to Kochi.
But in terms of handling international commuters, the airport here ranked last among the six airports, Mr. Raveendran said.
Tiruchy international airport on the hand handled the lowest number of domestic passengers (13,105) in that month while they handled 89,735 international passengers.
This is about nine fold the international passengers handled by the Coimbatore airport in July 2015.
