If completed on time, the Kannur International Airport, which is slated for commercial operations in June next year, will be able to accommodate flights diverted due to the partial shutdown of the Kozhikode airport.
The Kozhikode airport, which requires strengthening and re-carpeting of its runway, will be partially shutdown soon for nearly a year and half. For the first eight months, the airport will not be able to receive wide-bodied aircraft used by international airlines and, for the next few months, such aircraft can land only for a few hours a day.
This will cripple the operations of international flights and cause serious troubles to lakhs of North Kerala people employed in the Gulf, though some of the flights will be diverted to the Kochi airport.
There have been protests by NRI associations and political parties in Malabar against the long partial shutdown. About 90 per cent of Kozhikode traffic is international.
However, there is also a move to postpone the repairs by a couple of months so that the fury of the monsoon could be spared. If the postponement happens and the operation of the Kannur airport begins on time, sources said, most of the international flights could be diverted to Kannur from Kozhikode.
“The Kannur airport is designed to receive wide-bodied aircraft and there would be no problem for the large aircraft coming from the Gulf sector to land there,” an airport official told BusinessLine.
23/04/15 KPM Basheer/The Hindu
The Kozhikode airport, which requires strengthening and re-carpeting of its runway, will be partially shutdown soon for nearly a year and half. For the first eight months, the airport will not be able to receive wide-bodied aircraft used by international airlines and, for the next few months, such aircraft can land only for a few hours a day.
This will cripple the operations of international flights and cause serious troubles to lakhs of North Kerala people employed in the Gulf, though some of the flights will be diverted to the Kochi airport.
There have been protests by NRI associations and political parties in Malabar against the long partial shutdown. About 90 per cent of Kozhikode traffic is international.
However, there is also a move to postpone the repairs by a couple of months so that the fury of the monsoon could be spared. If the postponement happens and the operation of the Kannur airport begins on time, sources said, most of the international flights could be diverted to Kannur from Kozhikode.
“The Kannur airport is designed to receive wide-bodied aircraft and there would be no problem for the large aircraft coming from the Gulf sector to land there,” an airport official told BusinessLine.
23/04/15 KPM Basheer/The Hindu
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