CIAL joins elite club with business jet terminal

The commissioning of the business jet terminal has facilitated Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) to join the elite club of four airports in the country having such a dedicated facility. The other three are in New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

The 30 crore facility has achieved a faster growth in 100 days of its opening with landing of 100 private jets and gen- erating a revenue of over 1 crore in the last two months. CIAL, next year, is eyeing 1,000 landings of business jets with an average of five landings per day, says S Suhas, Man- aging Director.

While the business terminals in metros charge up to $4,000 per flight, the rate offered by CIAL is less than $1,200.

The company is looking at a growth in chartered tour- ism which will integrate business jet services, tourism and international business conferences. The movement of HNIS (high net worth individuals) also accentuates the idea of cost effectiveness, he said.

The business jet operations in the country had grown around 37 per cent during 2021-22, facilitating around 800 operations. The potential is great for the foreseeable fu- ture, he added. Hospitality and aviation sectors saw a stu- pendous growth of 114 per cent and 75 per cent respect- ively during the same time period. Around 65 per cent of the State’s air passengers are handled at the CIAL. This has helped the State achieve great heights in the field of avi- ation, he said.

RISE IN JET CHARTERING

However, Shoby T Paul, CEO of the jet charter company Halo Airways said that CIAL’s handling charges are com- paratively amongst the highest. If the authorities take ad- equate actions to bring the charges down, a promising growth in jet charters to Kochi is guaranteed, thereby boosting the growth of the tourism sector.

Of late, there has been a steady rise in demand for jet chartering on account of frequent trips of HNIs for busi- ness and leisure. A large section of flyers, including corpor- ate leaders, celebrities and top politicians regard it as a reli- able and comfortable way to fly, he said.

Halo Air offers flights for rates ranging from 2 lakb

18 lakh per flying hour. The recently concluded IPL auctions in Koch provided a significant boost to CIAL’s jet terminal wi landing of around 11 private jets.