Coimbatore International Airport is witnessing a slump in domestic operations after IndiGo reduced the number of flights to Chennai and Hyderabad.
As per a latest flight schedule, the airline is operating five flights to Chennai as against the eight services it used to operate to the State capital before. The three flights, which were cut in the past few months, include the ones that had departures at 6.30 a.m., 2.10 p.m. and 8 p.m. It has also reduced two flights to Hyderabad.
J. Sathish, aviation enthusiast and director of Kongu Global Forum (KGF), said Vistara’s flight to Mumbai at 2.20 p.m. has not been operated for the past three days. It has another flight to Delhi at 3.20 p.m., which was operating as per schedule.
“There were 24 domestic departures from Coimbatore on an average and on Thursday, there were only 20 departures, including one international service to Singapore. Friday’s departures stood at 22, including two international services to Singapore and Sharjah. The airport has potential for at least 27 departures per day,” he said.
According to him, IndiGo has called back someservices citing technical issues in the A320 type aircraft across the country.
“It is learnt that the operator has plans to replace three A320 models with five ATR type aircraft on the Coimbatore - Bengaluru sector in the near future. While A320 aircraft have 186 seats, ATR types have 72 seats. So, the number of seats will also be reduced,” he said.
A source from the airport said that no base flights were operating from Coimbatore at present. The airport used to have two base flights, the ones that arrive late night and leave early morning.
Delhi, Pune and Goa are the other destinations with flight connectivity from Coimbatore.
Last month, KGF wrote a letter to Air India, requesting to restart flights to Singapore and Delhi. It also sought new services to Dubai (three days a week), and to Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.
KGF Chairman A. Sakthivel met the CEO of Flydubai last year and a request to start flights from Coimbatore was made.
