The Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Coimbatore, has requested the Union Civil Aviation Minister to expedite works relating to the expansion of Coimbatore airport that has been declared an international airport.
It has also urged him to link more domestic and international cities with Coimbatore and encourage global operators to launch services.
R.R. Balasundharam, President, ICCI, Coimbatore, in a communication to the Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, welcoming the recent announcement of making Coimbatore airport an international airport, said it was yet to be equipped with requisite infrastructure facilities and the flights operated from here were ‘not sufficient’.
He said the airport expansion programme should be speeded up and the number of cargo flights from the city enhanced. He wanted the airport to be included in the cities under bilateral agreements for unrestricted operations as has been done in case of all other non-metro airports in the South for getting more international connectivity.
Listing the international flights to be launched, he said services to West Asia with onward journey connections to Europe and North America should be introduced and there should be daily flights to Dubai. The tri-weekly Silk Air service to Singapore should be converted into a daily service and Air Arabia flight to Sharjah should be made a daily service from the present five times a week, he said.
Balasundharam mentioned that Air Asia, Fly Dubai and Bahrain Air had earlier evinced interest in operating services to Coimbatore and they should be permitted to launch services to the city. He also wanted global players such as Emirates, Etihad, Malaysian Airlines and Lufthansa should be contacted for launching their services to the tex-city.
The ICCI president also sought improvement in passenger amenities in the airport and ininfrastructure.