Chennai airport needs to connect more cities to attract more flyers

Efforts to enhance Chennai airport's international connectivity with new direct flights to popular destinations are underway.

The Chennai airport may have slipped to the fourth place in international passenger traffic. But efforts are being made gradually to connect more destinations.

In what could be greatly beneficial to air passengers, direct flights have been added this year from Chennai to newer destinations, including Phuket, Brunei, Penang, and Mauritius. Direct flights to Hong Kong resumed from the Chennai airport after a long hiatus and additional flights to Bangkok began this year. But passengers and travel agents say that to put the Chennai airport back in the third spot, it should have direct connectivity to destinations in the Far East and the West, too. The data for November show that in the international passenger traffic, there was 1% decline at the Chennai airport.

The airport handled 4,74,623 passengers in November 2024, compared with 4,79,390 in the same period the previous year. While the focus should be on improving the airport’s infrastructure, direct flight services, too, deserve attention.

Vidyasagar J., a frequent flyer, says that when a traveller plans a holiday, he first considers how convenient the flights are. When people chalk out a holiday plan, they choose destinations that have direct flights because they want to save on travel time. “Flying to Australia has been on my bucket list. But we don’t have a direct flight. Now, we have to travel through Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. Bengaluru has been lucky, and it has got flights by Qantas to Sydney,” he points out.

He noted thousands of people fly to the United States from Chennai. “Those who work there are not the only fliers. Families often visit their kin and they would like to have direct flights. My in-laws travel to San Francisco, and for senior citizens who visit their children, it would be convenient to have direct flights to the U.S.,” he says.

Travel agents say introduction of direct flights to Vietnam, Japan, the U.S., and Australia could give a boost to the Chennai airport.

T. Devaki, chairperson of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), says that new flights to destinations like Phuket, Penang, and Brunei are helpful as tourists are keen on travelling to these destinations. “Southeast Asia has always been a favourite of tourists, largely because of proximity and affordability. We should consider direct flights to Vietnam. Many people are attracted to Vietnam as they can cover both Vietnam and Cambodia. Now, they travel through Singapore. This means more travel time, and more cost,” she says.