Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said in Lok Sabha on Thursday that the Ministry has given six countries- Sharjah, Dubai, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom and the United States- Coimbatore as a ‘point of call’.
Answering a question from Pollachi MP K. Shanmugasundaram, who raised the issue of poor international connectivity to Coimbatore International Airport, Mr. Scindia said that Coimbatore airport, at present, is having connectivity to Sharjah, 10 frequencies a week, and to Singapore, 14 frequencies per week.
According to the Minister, Indian designated carriers are free to mount scheduled operations to/from any international airport in India, including Coimbatore, under the ambit of bilateral Air Service Agreements (ASA). Coimbatore is already available as a point of call to the designated carriers of Singapore, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Sharjah, the U.K. and the U.S. Currently, due to significant imbalance in the number of points of call in favour of foreign carriers, the Central government does not grant any non-metro airport as a new point of call to any foreign carrier.
“As far as Coimbatore airport is concerned, there are lot of works that are on going to improve the modernity of that airport. We are today looking at seven additional aprons at a cost of ₹23 crore, resurfacing of the runway at about ₹47 crore. We are also planning, probably, a new cargo terminal. All of these are keeping in mind our current air terminal capacity of 18,000 sq.m and total throughput of passengers of at least 3.6 million a per year,” he said.
Mr. Shanmugasundaram told the Minister that with the presence of large number of industries in Coimbatore, Tiruppur, and Karur, buyers from different destinations were facing difficulty as international passengers amount to 50 % of the daily passenger footfall of 10,000. The expansion of the airport is pending for over 20 years, he said.
Mr. Scindia replied that one big impediment to modernise and expand airports is the acquisition of land by State governments.
The Ministry has been asking for 627.89 acres to expand Coimbatore airport, which is now able to accommodate Code C planes (Boeing 737 and Airbus A320s), so that Code A aircraft (wide-bodied aircraft) can land. “But this is only possible if the State government gives us that land. It is my commitment, if that land is made available to me by his [MP’s] government, then we will certainly expand the airport” Mr. Scindia said.
To a question on runway expansion, the Minister said that it was the Ministry’s effort to increase the runway from 2,999 m to 3,810 m, so that Code A aircraft can land.
