Airlines have either stopped services to and from airport or slashed number of services
BBN Bureau
Kochi: Caught in the headwind of low passenger patronisation, Kannur International Airport, which opened nearly six years ago with much expectation that it would give wings to the development dreams of Northern Kerala, has been passing through turbulent patches.
Feeling the pinch, airlines have either stopped services to and from the airport or slashed the number of services.
businessbenchmark.news reliably learned that Air India Express has decided to scrap its daily Kannur-Bengaluru flight from this month on due to unremunerative load factor. Airport sources confided to businessbenchmark.news that the flight was operated with less than 10 passengers on many days.
However, the official version is that the flight will be grounded for two weeks, but they don’t cite any reason. Similarly, they are not sure if the service will resume.
Now Air India Express has stopped booking for the segment.
The fate of two daily IndiGo flights to Bengaluru is hanging in the balance for want of passengers. The airline has rescheduled its daily Mumbai-Kannur-Mumbai flight to a 4day-a-week flight as the load factor went nadir
Consequently, number of passengers passing through the airport is dwindling. Airport Authority of India’s data show that in March 2024 footfalls at the airport were 16 per cent down at 95,588 as compared to 1,14,292 a year ago, reflecting a decrease of 18,404.
However, there is a ray of hope for Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL) which owns and operates the airport. Air India Express, a no-frills subsidiary of Air India owned by Tata Group, is likely to operate more Gulf services from the airport. Kannur being a `Gulf belt’, KIAL hopes it may lure more people to the airport.
Interestingly, though the neighboring districts Kozhikode and Kasargod are home to a very large number of people working in the Gulf countries, they prefer the nearby airports of Karipur and Mangalore respectively. So the likelihood of KIAL getting even a small slice of these passengers is next to nothing.
A sharp hike in fares has made the airport unattractive for passengers. Regular flyers from the airport lament that there has been a 300 per cent hike on some sectors. People travelling on the Gulf sectors have to shell out more money when passing through the airport. For instance, in March the average fare for Kannur –Jeddah sector was Rs60,500. For the Riyadh and the Kuwait sectors too, people have to pay more.
Lack of strong passenger patronisation coupled with no noteworthy cargo operations have pushed KIAL deep into the red. Right from the first year of operations, the company has been reeling under heavy loss. Its net loss grew to Rs126.27 crore in the fiscal 2023 from Rs124.30 crore in 2022. Last year’s (FY24) result is yet to be announced.
Adding the woes of KIAL, its net worth has been fast eroding. In FY 23 its net worth stood at Rs.764 crore which was only a little above 50 per cent of its share capital of Rs1339 crore. It means the condition of the company is so alarming that unless the government, the largest shareholder of the company, pumps in funds, KIAL operates and owns the fourth international airport in the State located in the hometown of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will slip into deep troubles.
One may wonder how the airport came up in a place sandwiched by two well-run airports in its close vicinity. Despite this dismal show of KIAL, the State government uses all its might to make its dream project of the fifth international airport in the State near Sabarimala a reality. Crucially, the proposed airport falls within 150 kilometres of aerial distance from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram airports, the two busiest ones in the State. As per the Central norms, a greenfield airport is not permitted within the 150-kilometre aerial distance of an existing airport.
