UAE-India flights: Cochin Airport to offer 44 weekly departures to Dubai

Dubai and Abu Dhabi will be among the two most popular overseas destinations for flights heading out of Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL). According to the airport, there will be 44 weekly departures to Dubai and 42 to Abu Dhabi from the city in the summer schedule, effective March 27.

India's third-busiest airport will see 1,190 weekly flights when normal commercial international flights resume after a two-year gap from Sunday.

It will schedule 668 domestic flights, ensuring connectivity with 13 cities in India. They include weekly flights to Bangalore (79), Delhi (63), Mumbai (55), Chennai (49), Hyderabad (39) and Kolkata (seven).

A score of airlines, including 16 international ones, will be operating flights to cities around the world. They include Emirates, Etihad Airways, Fly Dubai, Oman Air, Saudia, Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways, Air India Express, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air Asia Berhad, Singapore Airlines, SriLankan Airlines and Thai Air Asia.

International carriers will be operating 261 weekly departures in the summer schedule.

"The zealous effort taken by the company to smoothen the traffic during the pandemic period would have instilled a sense of safety in international airlines and which has been reflected in the summer schedule," said S Suhas, Managing Director, CIAL.

"Despite the spike in Covid cases, CIAL has successfully managed to facilitate a smooth traffic," said Suhas.

Delhi was the busiest international airport in India in 2021. According to Airports Authority of India (AAI) data, Delhi topped the list with 842,582 passengers in December, followed by Mumbai (451,212), CIAL (301,338) and Chennai (246,387).