Domestic operation at the fast-growing Tiruchi International Airport is expected to improve with Air Carnival expressing its interest to launch a service in the Chennai-Tiruchi– Chennai sector.
The regional airline has conveyed its proposal to the airport authorities here to start a morning flight service from Chennai to Tiruchi and back. In a recent communication to the Tiruchi Airport Director, the airline has sought office space at the airport. Airport Director K. Gunasekaran told The Hindu that a senior official from Air Carnival is expected to visit soon for an interaction with officials of the Tiruchi airport which witnesses more overseas flight operations than domestic services.
Only after the deliberations and an official clearance from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation would things crystallise into something concrete about the new flight service, Mr. Gunasekaran said.
Tiruchi presently has domestic connectivity only to Chennai with the Jet Airways operating three services a day in that sector. The proposed move by Air Carnival comes amid heavy demand from the travel industry and other bodies which have been seeking better domestic connectivity from Tiruchi to Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi.
Given the heavy demand, the airport authorities wrote to Air India a few months ago to resume flight services in the Tiruchi-Mumbai-Tiruchi sector. Although Bengaluru-based Fly Easy airline evinced interest in mid-2015 to launch a Bengaluru -Tiruchi - Bengaluru service, the proposal never took off.
Despite the lone domestic connectivity, Tiruchi airport handled over 1.45 lakh domestic passengers in 2015-16. Till July this fiscal, about 60,000 domestic passengers used the airport.
