The Kannur airport has achieved the distinction of serving one million passengers in nine months, said a press release from the Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL).
According to the release, Durga Thotten, a Class 9 student who landed in Kannur from Singapore with her parents and brother on Tuesday, was the millionth passenger of the airport.
The airport authorities welcomed Durga as the millionth passenger by handing her a memento, reports the Hindu. The achievement was mainly due to the increased number of domestic passengers, according to airport officials.
Kerala’s fourth international airport, the Kannur international airport was inaugurated on December 9, 2018. The airport was the second to be built under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model and the airport terminal building is said to be the largest in India.
The family of Satheesh Thotten and Rejani, Durga’s parents, are settled in Singapore and landed in Kannur on an Indigo flight to celebrate Onam at their ancestral home in Payyanur in the district.
KIAL senior operations manager Rajesh Pothuval presented a memento to Durga. The airport has seen a consistent increase in the number of passengers every month since its opening. KIAL overtook Karipur international airport in the number of domestic passengers in six months after commencing operations.
In July, there was an increase of 2,719 international passengers and 458 domestic passengers.
Recently after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan met CEOs of various airline companies it was announced that 39 new domestic services will commence from airports in the state.
Out of the 39, 23 of the flights will be from the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. Among this, the services of Indigo will be from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad while GoAir will operate from Thiruvananthapuram to Chennai, Kannur, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and also from Kannur to Kochi.