 "No flight services at Thiruvananthapuram airport for 5 hours on April 21")
Flight services at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport will be suspended for five hours on April 21 due to the 'Painkuni Arattu' procession at Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. The procession is scheduled to cross the airport's runway from 4 pm to 9 pm on Sunday, announced TIAL on Wednesday.
Taking to social media platform X (formerly twitter), TIAL said, “Dear passengers, on April 21, 2024, flight services will be suspended from 1600 hrs to 2100 hrs to enable the smooth continuation of the holy Painkuni Arattu procession of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple through our airport.”
“The updated timings of the flights are available with the respective airlines. Our team is committed to ensuring your journey remains seamless at our #GatewayToGoodness,” it added.
For decades, TIAL has been pausing operations and rescheduling flights twice yearly to accommodate the shrine's bi-annual ceremonial procession passing through the runway. When the airport was initially constructed, the then-Travancore king Sree Chithira Thirunal stated that it would be open to the public for 363 days a year, with operations halted twice yearly for the shrine's procession. This royal-era tradition has persisted even after the Adani Group took over the airport's management.
The airport issues a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) twice yearly before closing the runway for the bi-annual Alpassi festival in October-November and the Painkuni festival in March-April.
In another development, TIAL experienced a significant increase in both passenger numbers and air traffic movements during the financial year 2023-24. A total of 4.4 million passengers traveled through the airport from April 2023 to March 2024, compared to 3.46 million passengers in 2022-23. Of the 4.4 million passengers, 2.42 million were domestic and 1.98 million were international, marking one of the highest passenger numbers in the airport's history.