TRICHY: As Trichy International Airport enters the fourth year of its international operations from Sunday, the non-inclusion of the airport in the BASA (Bilateral Air Services Agreement) continues to prevent foreign carriers from starting operations from the city to the Gulf countries.
While passenger traffic is increasing year on year with more services towards south east Asian countries, people from southern states still demand direct carriers to the Gulf. The overseas passenger traffic is set to cross 13 lakh this year.
BASA is an agreement between two countries which allows international commercial air transport between their territories. A senior official of the aviation department at the airport said every year, the agreement is revised based on capacity addition and the requirement of carriers. Several prominent Gulf carriers asked for seat allocation for Trichy, but it was never awarded.
According to data obtained from the Trichy International Airport and the directorate general of civil aviation, passengers have been increasing over the years and overseas passengers contribute majorly to this growth. The airport receives at least 1,000 passengers every day.
Trichy Airport, which has a 70-year-old history, handles about five major international flights, most of them flying to south east Asian countries and only one of them flying to gulf countries directly. Though Indians have been travelling to Gulf countries for work in huge numbers for several decades, Trichy still has just one Indian carrier flying to Dubai with a full capacity load.
"A large chunk of the population in the southern districts migrate to the Gulf to work as labourers. Trichy remains one of their connecting points and on a daily basis, at least 350 of them travel to and from Trichy to several places in the Gulf," said Khaleel Bhaqvi, secretary of the Kuwait- Tamil Islamic Community in Kuwait.
He added that prior to the awarding of 'international' status to the Trichy airport, Indian Airlines used to operate flights to Kuwait and Sharjah. But this was later dropped citing several reasons. Several representations have been sent to the ministry of civil aviation to revive the services.
A senior official from the airport said, "The runway needs to be at least 10,000 feet long to allow wide-bodies aircraft to land at the airport. For now, the airport only takes in narrow-bodies aircraft. Concerns about the danger of short runways have increased after the Mangalore air crash of 2010," they said.
While passenger traffic is increasing year on year with more services towards south east Asian countries, people from southern states still demand direct carriers to the Gulf. The overseas passenger traffic is set to cross 13 lakh this year.
BASA is an agreement between two countries which allows international commercial air transport between their territories. A senior official of the aviation department at the airport said every year, the agreement is revised based on capacity addition and the requirement of carriers. Several prominent Gulf carriers asked for seat allocation for Trichy, but it was never awarded.
According to data obtained from the Trichy International Airport and the directorate general of civil aviation, passengers have been increasing over the years and overseas passengers contribute majorly to this growth. The airport receives at least 1,000 passengers every day.
Trichy Airport, which has a 70-year-old history, handles about five major international flights, most of them flying to south east Asian countries and only one of them flying to gulf countries directly. Though Indians have been travelling to Gulf countries for work in huge numbers for several decades, Trichy still has just one Indian carrier flying to Dubai with a full capacity load.
"A large chunk of the population in the southern districts migrate to the Gulf to work as labourers. Trichy remains one of their connecting points and on a daily basis, at least 350 of them travel to and from Trichy to several places in the Gulf," said Khaleel Bhaqvi, secretary of the Kuwait- Tamil Islamic Community in Kuwait.
He added that prior to the awarding of 'international' status to the Trichy airport, Indian Airlines used to operate flights to Kuwait and Sharjah. But this was later dropped citing several reasons. Several representations have been sent to the ministry of civil aviation to revive the services.
A senior official from the airport said, "The runway needs to be at least 10,000 feet long to allow wide-bodies aircraft to land at the airport. For now, the airport only takes in narrow-bodies aircraft. Concerns about the danger of short runways have increased after the Mangalore air crash of 2010," they said.
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