Installation of Flight Information Digital System (FIDS) boards, Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and SMS facility for passengers are in the final stages at the Coimbatore Airport and are likely to be inaugurated within the next seven to 10 days, says Airport Director K. Peter Abraham.
Talking to The Hindu , Mr. Abraham says that the facilities under FIDS include provision of information through LCD display boards and video walls and the total project cost is around Rs. 1 crore. The measures are part of the exercise taken up to modernise the airport.
A total of 74 digital boards will be installed to keep the people informed on the departure and arrival status of flights. Two of the boards will be outside the airport for the visitors, while the rest will be in front of the various airlines counters and arrival and departure halls.
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The digital flight information system will be functional based on the inputs fed by the airlines.
These boards will replace the 15-year-old conventional flight information board.
This comes at a time when the airport was accorded the International Airport status. “The boards are likely to be in place and functional within the next 10 days,” he adds.
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In addition, passengers or their relatives/friends wanting to see them off or coming to the airport to receive them can get to know the flight status by dialling 2573100/ 2574100 to access the IVRS. For accessing flight status related information, passengers can also send in a text message i.e., SMS to 94422-64287/ 94422-64297 with the flight code. These facilities relieved the people from problems related to constantly busy telephone lines, call waiting etc.
The facilities are expected to provide information on flight status on a real time basis.
Growth
Some of the facilities are already on trial to fine-tune them before formally launching them in a couple of days, Mr. Abraham says. Coimbatore Airport has continuously been on a growth trajectory with close to 10 per cent year on year increase in passenger traffic and revenue.
As on date there are a minimum of 20 landings and take offs with an average of 3,500 to 4,000 passengers using the airport every day, of which 10 to 12 per cent of them are international passengers travelling to Sharjah or Singapore, the two international destinations for which Coimbatore Airport has flight connectivity.
Besides the two international destinations, Coimbatore has domestic flight connectivity with Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Kozhikode, Hyderabad.