Kannur airport

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the newly-constructed Kannur International Airport (KIA) on December 9.

The airport, to be operated by Kannur International Airport Ltd. (KIAL), is the second greenfield airport to be built under public-private partnership (PPP) model in Kerala after Kochin International Airport.

According to Mr. V. Thulasidas, Managing Director of KIAL, more airlines are expected to start services to and from Kannur in January.

GoAir, Indigo, and SpiceJet are awaiting final clearance from the director general of civil aviation (DGCA). If clearance is received, GoAir is likely to operate its first service on December 9 itself. IndiGo will start services by the middle of January 2019

Mr. Thulasidas has also said that some foreign airlines have already submitted proposals to the DGCA for beginning services connecting Kannur

The inaugural flight will be Air India Express to Abu Dhabi, which will be flagged off on December 9.

The airport will have 24 check-in counters initially, which can be increased up to 48 as per requirement. The airport is provided with six passenger boarding bridges, which can also be increased in future.

The length of the runway, which is at present 3050 metres, will be soon increased to 4000 metres. Though the airport was developed with the facility to handle 2000 passengers, the present facility allows handling of more than the estimated capacity.

Kerala’s fourth international airport at Kannur is all set to open on 9^th December 2018, following an approval by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL) Managing Director, V. Thulasidas confirmed the launched date, saying that “we are ready for operations”.

KIAL authorities are trying their best to see that commercial operations commence soon after the inauguration, but the Airport Authority of India will be deciding on that.

11 international carriers and 6 domestic airlines have already confirmed their decision to fly into KIAL.

The first trial operations were undertaken successfully at the airport on 20th September and a repeat rehearsal the following day, after which the DGCA finally gave their approval.

Here are some key features of the new greenfield airport:

• The Rs 1,892 crores airport is located at Mattanur, near Kannur. It is spread over 2,000 acres of land.
• At present, the length of the runway is 3,050 meters and work to extend the length of the runway to 4,000 meters has already begun.
• The swanky new airport has 24 check-in and 32 immigration counters.
• The Central Industrial Security Force will be in charge of the airport’s security operations.
• Kerala will be the only state in the country to have four international airports with the others at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, and Kozhikode.
• It will also be the state’s largest international airport.
• the airport will be able to handle 2,000 passengers at a time and it is anticipated that KIAL will serve more than 1.5 million international passengers annually.

Kannur International Airport in Kerala is all set to become operational from this month after Air India successfully conducted a test flight to what is to be, Kerala’s 4^th airport.

The announcement was made via a tweet by the Chief Minister Of Kerala, Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, which stated that the trial was carried out by Air India Express aircraft IX 555. The tweet also said that it is part of the final procedures for getting clearance in order to commence commercial operations.

He further informed that the operations on the Kannur International Airport would begin this month.

The test flight took-off at 9.45 AM from Thiruvananthapuram and landed at 11.38 AM at Kannur. Apart from the aircraft, the aerobridge and other airport facilities for passengers were also tested.

The international airport has been built at a cost of Rs 2,292 crore and is spread over 2,300 acres of land. It is expected that the airport is likely to serve over one million passengers annually and authorities estimate the number will increase to five million by 2025.

Kannur International Airport has a runway that is suitable for aircraft, like the Boeing B-777 as well as Airbus A-330.The airport runway will be later expanded so that it can handle bigger aircraft like the Airbus A-380 (The largest passenger aircraft in the world).

The terminal building of the airport is spread across 95,000 sq.m and is said to be the 8^th largest terminal in India. It has all state of the art facilities installed for passenger’s convenience.

The domestic destinations will be connected by SpiceJet & IndiGo Airlines. These destinations include  Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Goa, Hubballi, Solapur as well as Hindon in Ghaziabad.