Kannur International Airport

History

The airport project was initiated in 1996, when C.M. Ibrahim was the Union minister for Civil Aviation. 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.

The Airport project

The airport will be built on 2,061 acres (834 ha) acres 25 km from Kannur. The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) submitted the detail project report in May 2012 and subsequently Aecom Asia modified the Master Plan in August 2013. On November 2013, L&T was chosen to construct the runway, passenger terminal buildings and ATC building. The construction work commenced in November 2013 and the completion target date is 31 December 2016 with commercial operations expected to begin by Mid 2017.

The new airport would be turned into a major aviation transit point and will have a handling capacity of 4.67 million passengers and 60,758 tonnes of cargo per annum by 2026, in addition to being able to handle 39,638 aircraft movements yearly with peak aircraft movement at 18 per hour. The airport is also expected to act as a cargo hub for the Malabar region.

Runway

The runway length of Kannur International Airport will be 4000 m (13123 ft) which is expected to be completed in Phase 1 of the project. The current length of the runway is 3050 m (10,010 ft) which was completed on 29 April 2016.

On 9 September 2016, the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan decided to increase the runway 4000 m (13,123 ft) runway in Phase I itself along with a full parallel taxiway to enhance safety as reported earlier. 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.

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 for test flight on the 2400 m runway. Only 75% of the total 4000 m of the runway was complete at the time of test. 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 Air force (VUBFN). This 10 seater aircraft is capable of landing on unprepared land and rugged surfaces. Air Marshal R. Nambiar, a native of Kannur and co-pilot Wing Commander Vipin Neni from Pune were at the controls. 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.

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.

Solar power system

Taking its cue from the Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), Kannur International Airport is looking sun-ward to meet its energy needs.