Kochi: The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) on Thursday declared its maiden dividend of eight percent on the paid up capital of Rs.1.48 billion .

CIAL is the country's first airport outside the ambit of the Airports
Authority of India and was floated as a public limited company five years ago.

"This is the first company in the country's infrastructure sector to declare a dividend and we are extremely pleased to thank all the share holders and the employees who made this a reality," chief minister A.K. Antony, who is also the CIAL chairman, told reporters after a meeting of the board of directors.

The airport was dedicated to the nation May 25, 1999. Since then, traffic has picked up from a mere 76 flights a week in 1999 to a record 166 flights this year. The number of passengers has also gone up from 496,000 in 1999-2000 to 1.33 million in 2003-04.

CIAL saw its operational revenue increase from Rs.568 million in 2002-03 to Rs.793 million for the year 2003-04.The airport also earned a net profit after tax of Rs.211 million during the year 2003-04, up from Rs.125 million in 2002-03.

The airport was brought under a public limited company with equity participation from the state government and a large number of NRIs, of which a majority are based in the Gulf and are from Kerala.

The present share holding pattern reveals that the state holds 35.56 percent while other directors holds 37 percent, the rest of the shares are distributed among nationalised banks and public sector units like Air-India (10.61 percent), NRIs and the public (14.63 percent) and other commercial banks (2.20 percent).

The chief minister said that talks are going on with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO) to convert their loan amount of Rs.550 million into equity. "We are ready to convert it but HUDCO is still not decided and we hope they would do the needful," said Antony.

The interest burden of CIAL, which was Rs.400 million in 2001-02 has been brought down to a mere Rs.119.2 million this year."The next annual general meeting of CIAL is scheduled for August this year and we are planning for a major upliftment of the airport by having a second terminal and providing a lot of amenities for passengers," Antony said.