Number of intl flights from city stalls

Chennai: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Airport 3rd In Passenger Capacity

Chennai airport ranks third in terms of total number of international passengers handled when compared to other metro airports, but direct flights to international destinations from the airport have stagnated.Capacity constraints prevent the airport from allowing more flights at night. Bengalu ru has direct flights to San Francisco, Frankfurt, Paris and Mauritius in addition to the short haul flights to South East Asian destinations and the Middle East, while Chennai has direct flights only to Frankfurt and London besides flights to Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. The connec tions to Europe are very less though demand is high. This has reflected in tourist arrivals as well. The airport's share in the total foreign tourist arrivals has dipped by 1.3% in this May compared to May last year.
Statistics compiled by mini stry of tourism using data from bureau of immigration show that of the total tourists who visited India, 7.75% of the travellers used Chennai as a gateway in May 2017 while the airport's share was 9.03% of the total arrivals in the corresponding period last year. Air traffic statistics for April shows that the airport handled the maximum number of international travellers after Delhi and Mumbai. Chennai airport's only European connection is with Frankfurt and there are no direct flights to the US. The airport has constraints in handling more international flights because the new international arrival hall is yet to be opened.
“We may have capacity constraints but have not rejected any request for international flights. There are more flights to the Middle East and South East Asia because of demand. Each airport caters to flyers to different regions, a large number of travellers fly to Europe from Bengaluru while the demand is high for countries in the far east from Hyderabad,“ a senior official of AAI said.