History of Kannur airport

Logo of Kannur Airport

Kannur International Airport (IATA: -, ICAO: VOKN) (Malayalam: കണ്ണൂർ അന്താരാഷ്ട്ര വിമാനത്താവളം) is an upcoming International Airport under construction at Mattanur in Kannur District, 25 kilometers from the cities Kannur and Thalassery in the state of Kerala, India. It is being built on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model by the Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL) of which Airports Authority of India has an equity stake of 10 percent.[1]

Greenfield Airport

Kannur International Airport will be the second Greenfield airport to be set up in Kerala after Cochin. The project is spread over 2,000 acres (810 ha). Once completed it will be the fourth[2] and largest international airport in Kerala after Trivandrum, Cochin and Calicut making it the only state in India to have four international airports.

Early History

The airport project was initiated in 1996, when C.M. Ibrahim was the civil aviation minister. With his help, the E.K. Nayanar-led state government pursued the project in 1997 with the proposal of a Greenfield Airport at Kannur. The Government of Kerala appointed Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) as a Nodal agency in January 1998 for implementation of the project. The latter was appointed to undertake feasibility studies which were submitted to the Government of India in 2005. The proposal for the development of the ‘Kannur International Airport’ received ‘in principle’ approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation in February 2008. "Kannur International Airport Limited" (KIAL) was founded in December 2009. The foundation stone for the Airport was laid on 17 December 2010.[3]

Airlines in 1934

While the long-awaited airport is now under construction, this will not be Kannur's assosiation with air transport. Tata Airlines made its maiden flight to Kerala using a DH83 Fox Moth aircraft under the patronage of Maharaja Chithira Thirunal, The last king of Travancore. The service to Kerala started on 29 October 1935 as per Tata's website. The weekly service between Bombay and Trivandrum had stops at Goa and Cannanore (Kannur). It was not a commercial stop in Kannur but a refueling pit-stop. At the time of the British reign, Kannur Cantonment had an airstrip as the military headquarters here used to have several airmail from Bombay.[4]

The Kannur airport project

The airport will be built on 2,000 acres (810 ha) acres 25 km from Kannur. The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) submitted the detail project report in May 2012 and subsequently Aecom Asia[5] modified the Master Plan in August 2013. On November 2013, L&T was chosen to construct the runway, passenger terminal buildings and ATC building.[6] The construction work commenced in November 2013 and the completion target date is 31 December 2016 with commercial operations expected to begin in March 2017.

Runway

The runway length of Kannur International Airport will be 4000 m (13,123 ft) which is expected to be completed in phase 1[7] the project itself. Commercial operations will start with the current length of the runway which is 3050 m (10,010 ft) completed on 29 April 2016.[9]

On 9 September 2016, the Kerala CM decided to increase the runway 4000 m (13,123 ft) runway in Phase I[11] itself along with a full parallel taxiway to enhance safety as reported earlier.[12] Once the extension to 4000 m extension is completed, Kannur will be the fourth airport in India to have a runway length of 4000 m after Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore[13].

Trial landing operation

The official date for trial landing was planned for 31 December 2015 but was delayed due to incessant non-seasonal rains that delayed runway work. In February 2016, The airport had obtained mandatory DGCA clearance [8] for test flight on the 2400 m runway which was completed at the time. The Government announced that it will conduct a test flight from the airport on 29 February 2016 with an aircraft belonging to the Defence Ministry.

On 29 February 2016 at 0906 hrs, the trial landing operation was successfully completed at Kannur International Airport by a Dornier 228 aircraft from the Indian Airforce registration number - VUBFN with Air Marshal R. Nambiar, a native of Kannur and co-pilot Wing Commander Vipin Neni from Pune at the controls.[9] The then Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Ministers K. Babu, K.C. Joseph, and K.P. Mohanan received the pilots after the landing. Thousands of people had thronged the project site to witness the event and the landing was greeted by applause by the cheering crowd.[10] After a brief halt at the airfield the aircraft departed back to its home base Air Force Station Yelhanka at 1114 hrs. Mr. Chandy said when completed the new airport will boost development.[11]

Records of Recent developments

August 2016

July 2016

June 2016

May 2016

April 2016

Expected start of commercial operations

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Equity structure of Kannur airport revised". The Hindu. 2016-02-02. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-07-03.
  2. ↑ Babu, Ramesh (29 December 2015). "Kerala set to get a fourth international airport in Kannur". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "Kannur: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Lays Foundation Stone for Airport Terminal". Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  4. ↑ "Kannur flew, way before its first airport". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  5. ↑ "Kannur International Airport Master Plan - AECOM". Kannur International Airport Master Plan - AECOM. July 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  6. ↑ "L&T gets Kannur airport work". The Hindu. 6 November 2013. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  7. ↑ "With mega runway, Kannur airport to join the elite group". The Hindu. 2016-09-10. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
  8. ↑ "Nod for aircraft touchdown at Kannur airport". The Hindu. 15 February 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  9. ↑ "Kannur trial landing a success". The Hindu. 1 March 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  10. ↑ "Trial operations at Kerala's 4th international airport successful". 2016-02-29. Retrieved 2016-06-26.
  11. ↑ "1st Trial Flight Lands In North Kerala, Oommen Chandy Says 'It Will Boost Development'". NDTV. 1 March 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  12. ↑ "Air India Express expands fleet, explores new routes". Retrieved 2016-07-29.
  13. ↑ "15 airlines keen to operate from Kannur". The Hindu. 2016-07-28. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
  14. ↑ "Beckoning top airlines to Kannur". The Hindu. 2016-07-26. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
  15. ↑ "Air India, Jet, Indigo to operate services from Kannur airport". Retrieved 2016-07-14.
  16. 1 2 "Malabar pins its hopes on budget". The Hindu. 2016-07-08. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-07-08.
  17. ↑ "A wish list for Kannur". The Hindu. 2016-07-04. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-07-04.
  18. 1 2 "Thulasidas to hold reins of KIAL again". The Hindu. 2016-07-02. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-07-02.
  19. ↑ "3,050-m runway ready in Kannur". The Hindu. 1 May 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  20. ↑ "Profile on Kannur International Airport | CAPA - Centre for Aviation". centreforaviation.com. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  21. ↑ "Govt. will strengthen PSUs: Jayarajan". The Hindu. 29 May 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  22. ↑ "Profile on Kannur Airport". CAPA. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kannur International Airport.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.