What Chennai airport needs to do to make more passengers use flights?
Previously, Chennai airport was ranked third in international passenger traffic. Now, Chennai airport is ranked fourth. It is now said that efforts are being taken to connect Chennai airport with more destinations.
It is superb to note that new flights were added from Chennai airport to new destinations like Phuket, Brunei, Mauritius and Penang etc. This has brought huge happiness on the faces of many travellers. After a long gap, direct flights resumed to Hong Kong from the Chennai airport plus additional flights started to Bangkok. It seems this is not enough to make the Chennai airport popular like in the past. For that, Chennai airport must have direct connection to the destinations in Far East and West. This was according to many travel agents and passengers etc
It has been confirmed by the data for November that in the international passenger traffic there was a decrease of 1% at the Chennai airport. In 2023 in November, Chennai airport handled as many as 479390 passengers but in 2024 it handled 474623 passengers. The Airport`s infrastructure must be improved and it includes direct flight services too.
It was brought to light by a frequent traveller that when people plan to go to some destinations for holidays they mostly prefer those destinations that have direct flights as time would be saved by this. He spoke about how for travelling to Australia he would have to travel through Singapore or Kuala Lumpur from Chennai due to absence of direct flights. Point is that there are direct flights from Bengaluru to Sydney.
As there are no direct flights from Chennai to the USA, people find it difficult. Senior persons who want to meet their sons or daughters working or studying in the USA suffer more. It is now mentioned that direct flights from Chennai to the USA would make the lives of these senior persons much easier.
According to T. Devaki, chairperson of TAAI or Travel Agents Association of India, new flights to places such as Phuket, Brunei etc were helpful to the tourists who were interested to visit these places. She spoke about how direct flights to Vietnam would be superb. Truth is that many visit Vietnam as they could also cover Cambodia. She was of the view that due to good load factor direct flights from Chennai to destinations like Guanghhou and Tokyo would be useful.
