Trivandrum International Airport

Trivandrum International Airport (code TRV) is the international airport for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The airport was originally an Indian Airports Authority asset that was leased to Adani Group in 2021 under a 50-year operate-maintain-develop concession — the longest-tenor airport-operator concession granted in Indian aviation history.

The Adani concession allocation was politically contentious — the Kerala government formally opposed the transfer, citing concerns over Adani Group's market concentration in Indian airport operations (Adani also operates Mumbai, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Mangalore, Jaipur, and Guwahati airports). The Supreme Court eventually upheld the concession but with conditions on local-procurement + employment.

The airport handles ~4 million passengers/year (2024). Major upgrades under Adani Group include: integrated terminal (international + domestic merged), expanded passenger capacity to 6 MPPA, dedicated cargo terminal, and runway capacity augmentation. The airport serves as a major Gulf-India migrant-worker route — particularly Kerala's connection to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar.

The airport is significant as the operational base for the Indian Coast Guard's Visakhapatnam-Trivandrum-Andaman patrol corridor + serves as a major emergency-evacuation hub during southern monsoon flooding events in Kerala.