Overseas air passengers movements at the fast growing Tiruchi international airport is set to increase further with the launch of a new service to Sharjah from September 15 onwards from here.
The Air India Express will operate a daily service in the Tiruchi – Sharjah – Tiruchi sector in the early hours starting Thursday paving the way for a direct connectivity to another West Asian destination.
Presently, the Air India Express operates daily flights from Tiruchi to Dubai – the lone West Asian destination to have a direct connectivity from here.
Airport sources said the launch of a new service to Sharjah would further boost international passengers’ movement from Tiruchi – a non metro airport with more overseas flight operations than domestic services. The new flight service to Sharjah is expected to have good patronage given the heavy demand for direct connectivity to more overseas destinations in West Asia where a substantial chunk of work force from the central region are employed.
Airport sources also strongly feel that export cargo movements from here would witness a further upswing with the launch of the Tiruchi - Sharjah non-stop service.
A few months ago the Tiruchi airport authorities had written to the Air India requesting the airline to operate flight services to Sharjah and Kuwait from Tiruchi in view of the heavy demand from travellers.
According to Airports Authority of India website, the number of international passengers handled at the Tiruchi airport was nearly four lakh from April to July in the current financial year.
