Cochin International Airport guide

Cochin International Airport serves Kochi and central Kerala from Nedumbassery, about 25 km northeast of the city centre. It opened in May 1999 as India's first airport built and financed without central government funds, using a public-private partnership structure that later Indian airports would copy. The airport now carries more than 63% of Kerala's total air passenger traffic, making it the state's busiest gateway by a wide margin.

In August 2015 the airport commissioned a 12-megawatt solar power plant beside the runway, becoming the first airport in the world to run entirely on solar energy. Successive expansions since then have lifted total solar capacity to around 50 megawatts, and the plant continues to offset the airport's electricity use.

Kerala's large expatriate population in the Gulf drives heavy demand on Middle East routes, alongside domestic links across India. Under its ongoing "CIAL 2.0" programme, the airport has been upgrading digital processing systems and expanding terminal capacity to handle rising traffic.