Coimbatore Airport to get modern amenities soon

Flight Information Display Systems installed and tested

Passenger amenities such as Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and Short Messaging Service (SMS alerts on flight status and Flight Information Display Systems (FIDS) installed at a cost of over Rs. 1 crore at the Coimbatore Airport are all set for inauguration during the first week of December.

After an initial trial run, the facility was to be inaugurated during November but prior to launch, the AAI wanted to ensure that the system worked without any technical hitches.

Hence, the inauguration was put off for two to three weeks, AAI sources said.

Airport Director K. Peter Abraham told The Hindu that after installation, the facilities were tried out over the last few days.

Fifty-one Flight Information Display Systems, including two light emitting diode (LED) walls just outside the airport, 12 in the counters of the airlines and the rest in departure, security check and waiting lounge have completed the test run. These boards would provide real time update on arrival and departure of flights and their accuracy would largely depend on the inputs provided by the respective airlines.

These boards now come to replace the 15-year-old conventional flight information board.

In addition, passengers wanting to board a flight, relatives coming to see off a passenger or those planning to visit the airport for receiving the incoming passengers hereafter need not search for the phone number of the respective airlines.

They could instead dial 0422-2573100/ 2574100 to access the IVRS to know the status of incoming flights and departure time of flights ex-Coimbatore.

In addition, the other passenger amenity ready for inauguration could be SMS service, wherein passengers or relatives could send the flight code by SMS to 94422-64287/ 94422-64297.

These two facilities are expected to relieve the people of problems such as constantly engaged phone lines or human interface.

These facilities are getting inaugurated ahead of 2013 marking the recently-granted International Airport status for Coimbatore.

Facilities are coming in at a time when the airport, with 20 aircraft movements a day, is continuously on a growth trajectory recording an average of 3,500 to 4,000 passengers every day. Ten to 12 per cent of them are international passengers to Sharjah and Singapore.

Mr.Peter Abraham said that during the first week of December, all the three facilities would be dedicated.

Plant quarantine

Airports Authority of India is gearing up to open a plant quarantine facility at the Coimbatore Airport within the next ten days. The facility would help in speedy examination of the export material and issue a certification.

Whenever a perishable item or a flora is exported, it would have to be subjected to examination for presence of parasites, fungus and other virus to prevent communicable diseases. Only when certified by the plant quarantine facility, the importing countries accept such assignments, airport sources said.

Coimbatore accounted for export of vegetables from Coimbatore, the Nilgiris, Dindigul besides roses from Hosur, other varieties of flowers from Dindigul and Madurai. On average 30 tonnes are being exported every month from Coimbatore to destinations in Middle East and Singapore. Tiruchi airport already has the facility because of the number of international flights operated to and from there.

Cargo

At present, Coimbatore Airport on an average handled 280 tonnes of cargo export (all items put together) and the import was 11 tonnes.

Information systems ready for inauguration during first week of December

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