Train Schedule>Central Government planning to upgrade the Madurai Airport Central Government planning to upgrade the Madurai Airport
Chennai, March 21: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today urged the Centre to seriously consider converting Madurai airport as an international airport considering its huge growth potential in various sectors, including tourism and business.
The traffic at the Madurai airport was projected to grow from the current base of 1.58 lakh to over six lakh by 2011, a CII report released here said.
Stating that this represented an annual growth of about 25 per cent, the report said that the cargo traffic was projected to grow from the current level of 1,642 tonnes to about 3,000 tonnes by 2011.
"Madurai is currently constrained from handling international passenger and cargo traffic since it does not have an international airport status," the report noted and urged international airlines to look at the temple city as a hub of southern districts.
It said low cost aviation would be the main drive for air traffic in Madurai and all the major airlines operating services to the city had been witnessing substantial increases in capacity utilisations.
The present trend of AC class rail passengers opting to travel by air is expected to continue, leading to a substantial increase in air traffic, the report added. (Our Correspondent)
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