Marking the commencement of yet another ‘turnaround' season in Kochi, the Cochin International Airport Limited on Monday handled its largest ever number of foreign tourists on a single day.
“About 4,800 tourists landed or departed from here during the day, thanks to the German cruise liner Aida Diva that has docked at Kochi,'' said a senior official of CIAL.
The operations began in the morning with the arrival of 160 tourists from Munich via Kuwait by a Quick Aviation flight, followed by the five other flights from various other destinations including Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. The movement continued till the afternoon when the last of the chartered aircraft took off from here on the return leg.
According to CIAL, about 1,200 tourists landed here during the day by chartered aircraft while an equal number reached here by other flights.
A similar number of out-bound tourists, who disembarked from the ship flew back to Europe by these aircraft on their return leg.
Arrangements were made at the immigration counters to expedite the clearance procedure apart from setting up a help desk outside the arrival lounge to carry out the paper works.
Besides, large coaches, luggage vans and personnel executives were pressed into service to assist the guests, both arriving and departing.
According to officials, all the arriving guests were taken straight to the Kochi port to complete the immigration and check-in formalities for boarding the ship. After completing the check-in formalities, the visitors were expected to take a tour of their own choices in different groups to the nearby spots like Mattanchery or Kumbalangi village.
With Kochi becoming a prime cruise destination in the country, CIAL is taking more proactive steps in developing ‘cruise exchanges' by connecting this airport with the Kochi port. With the initiative, it proposes to improve the number of chartered aircraft landings at the airport and seeks to expand revenue from its core service of aircraft landings.
