Trade and industry associations have been persistent in their demand for strengthening air connectivity between Coimbatore and international destinations. Representatives from various associations across seven districts of western Tamil Nadu have come together under the Kongu Global Forum to represent their demand collectively.

Forum representatives met the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha last evening and stressed the need for initiating measures to commence international operations out of Coimbatore, specifically to the Gulf in the west and Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in the east, include Coimbatore airport as one of the ports of call in bilateral agreements with foreign airlines considering the high load factor potential of this region, facilitate setting up if a cargo complex and prevail upon national carriers like Indigo, Jet Airways, Air India and Spice Jet to operate international routes out of Coimbatore.

The Confederation of Indian Industry Coimbatore organised an interactive session with the minister to press for improving air connectivity particularly to the Middle East and European countries.

Responding to their plea, Sinha said the airport here faced twin bottlenecks of land acquisition and international connectivity. The former, though a state subject, the Centre would certainly work with the State government towards hastening land acquisition, he said and assured the participants that development of terminals and runways would be undertaken at a record time once the land acquisition issue is cleared.

He indicated that he would include Coimbatore in the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model of airport construction, as soon as the land is acquired.

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