The Cochin international airport is the first greenfield airport set up in the public-private-partnership model. (file)
| Photo Credit: S. Anandan
The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has reported achieving a total income of ₹1,014.21 crore for 2023-24, up from ₹770.91 crore last year (2023), a growth of 31.6% during the previous financial year. The Cochin airport is the first greenfield airport set up in the public-private-partnership model.
The airport operator’s profit before tax went up to ₹552.37 crore from ₹357.30 crore, an increase of 54.6%. Additionally, the net profit after tax touched ₹412.58 crore, from ₹267.17 crore in the previous year, indicating robust growth of more than 50%, said a CIAL press release here on Wednesday (September 4, 2024).
CIAL authorities said the airport has already charted plans for future development, including expanding the international terminal at an estimated cost of ₹560 crore, constructing a commercial zone costing ₹162 crore and extending the domestic terminal. CIAL’s Aero Lounge 0484 was inaugurated here on Sunday by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The 50,000-sq ft facility houses a whole range of comfort combined with luxury available to both visitors and passengers at affordable rates. CIAL had claimed it is the largest such facility in airports in the country.
The international airport here has turned out to be one of the busiest in the country handling more than a crore passengers a year. There are 670 flights a week to foreign destinations and 795 flights to domestic centres. Most of the cities in the country are now linked by air to Kochi via the international airport.
The Chief Minister said at the inauguration of Aero Lounge that the airport is now equipped to act a hub for flight operations in south India and underlined that the airport authority is ready to add or improve available facilities according to new demands.
