History
The airport was established in 1932 as part of the Royal Flying Club under the initiative of Colonel Goda Varma Raja, husband of HRH Princess Karthika Thirunal of Travancore Kingdom. Col G.V Raja, being a trained pilot, felt the need an airport to accommodate Travancore in the aviation map of India.
In 1935, on royal patronage of H.H Maharaja Chitra Thirunal, Tata Airlines made its maiden flight to the airport using DH.83 Fox Moth aircraft under command of India's first pilot Nevill Vintcent, carried two passengers Jamshed Navoroji, a Tata company official, and Kanchi Dwarakadas, commercial agent of Travancore to Bombay Presidency along with a special mail from Viceroy of British India, Lord Willingdon wishing birthday greetings to the Maharaja.
The first flight from the airport took off on 1 November 1935, carrying mails of Royal Anchal (Travancore Post) to Bombay. Soon in 1938, the Royal Government of Travancore acquired a Dakota aircraft as Maharaja's private aircraft and placed 1st squadron of Royal Indian Air Force (Travancore) for protection of state from aerial attacks. After Independence, the airstrip was used for handling domestic flights with construction of a domestic terminal- T1. International operations were initiated by Air India to several cities in the Middle East during the latter half of the 80s. Very soon, SriLankan Airlines (then Air Lanka) & Air Male joined the race. On 1 January 1991, it was upgraded to an international airport, making it the first such airport in India outside the metropolitan cities.
On 1 March 2011, The first flight operated from the new international terminal. IX 536 (Air India Express) from Sharjah marked the first arrival and also Air India Express operated the first departure to Dubai from this new terminal. All the international departing passengers must pay INR 575 as users fee from 1 March 2011.
Read more about this topic: Trivandrum International Airport
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