The draft masterplan-2040 for the city of Thiruvananthapuram contains a proposal for a new airport. The plan, which will be presented in the works council, locates the new airport near the outer ring road in the city boundary and suggests land acquisition through land pooling. It also proposes an integrated terminal for domestic and international services as part of the development of the existing airport.

The proposal is significant given the problems related to land acquisition for the current airport and coastal erosion at Shanghumugham Beach over the past two to three years. The pitch for a new airport also marks a transition from a proposal under the Capital Region Development Project (CRDP)-II to construct an offshore runway parallel to Shanghumugham Beach near the existing airport.

As part of CRDP-II, the proposal was to extend the existing airport by constructing a new runway offshore with connection to the existing runway via a new taxiway. The runway was proposed on land reclaimed from the sea and was expected to solve problems related to land acquisition. However, in the past two to three years, coastal areas in the district have been ravaged by strong waves and even Shanghumugham Airport Road had to be closed after a significant portion of the beach was lost.