Amid steep rise in overseas passenger traffic at the Tiruchi international airport, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has embarked on the task of establishing the third aerobridge for the benefit of the travellers.
The third aerobridge would be an additional facility with the works being carried out in two phases in the wake of rise in overseas flight operations as well.
Phase- I work of construction of a Rotunda – a base structure to connect the international terminal building and link corridor was taken up. Airport sources told The Hindu that the construction of the Rotunda – a civil work had been completed setting the stage for taking up the next work under phase-II.
The crucial work of putting in place the link corridor comprising of three compartments would be taken up soon. Imported equipment from Spain would be utilised for putting up the link corridor to connect it with the aircraft and the terminal building.
The sources said the link corridor work was expected to be completed in the near future to pave the way for the likely commissioning of the third aerobridge in December. The third aerobridge would reduce ground handling time and maintain on-time performance for all international airlines operating from Tiruchi international airport, said the sources.
The AAI would spend nearly ₹2.25 crore for establishing the third aerobridge, said the sources. The need for a third aerobridge was felt in view of the steady rise in overall passenger growth and movement of flights at the non-metro Tiruchi airport.
Tiruchi has been a unique airport with more overseas flight operations than domestic services. The airport handles over 100 aircrafts every week majority of which are international carriers operating services to Colombo, Dubai, Sharjah, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore daily.
The Tiruchi airport handled a little over 13.59 lakh passengers (overseas and domestic) during the 2016-17 financial year, according to AAI statistics. International passengers alone accounted for a little over 11.90 lakh with domestic passenger movement being over 1.68 lakh.
