Kannur airport: Test flight of passenger aircraft over

Kannur: Following the final inspection by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in Kannur International Airport, a passenger aircraft made a test landing on Thursday.

The 190-seater Boeing-737 of Air India that took off from Thiruvananthapuram airport at 9.57 a.m, reached the air corridor of Kannur airport at 10.25 and after five rounds in the air touched down on the new airport's runway in its sixth round.

The flight landing was conducted in compliance with the Inernational Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) stipulations. The exercise is aimed at ensuring the functioning of air traffic control for route determinations and radio nagivation devices that make communications with the airport.

There were no passengers on the test flight. Captain AS Rao, First Office Arvind Kumar, Senior Cabin Crew Saina Mohan and seven technical experts were on board. Captain Rao expressed the hope to mediamen that the licence for aircraft to operate here will be available within a week.

The two-member DGCA team that conducted inspections as a prelude to granting licence to the airport, had completed their inspection and reteurned on Wednesday. It is hoped that as and when the report of Thursday's air traffic inspection is submitted by Air India to DGCA, licence for airport will be approved.

KIAL Managing Director Tulsi Das told Madhyamam that final approval from the ministry of civil aviation would be obtained soon. It is for the government to decide a date of inauguration, he said. Flight schedules have been prepared in line with the contract with the airlines. Airlines have put in place their reservation software so as to start operations following the inauguration.

"As far as we are concerned, we are ready with all the mandatory tests. Once today's tests are done, tomorrow (Friday) we are getting another aircraft. Once the DGCA gives the license, then it's the role of the Airport Authority of India (AAI). We expect the tests to be completed by the end of this month," said Thulasidas, who is also the former chairman and managing director of Air India.

But he did not specify when the commercial operations would begin.

"Even though the trial flights have begun, during the time when floods ravaged several districts of the state in August, Naval aircraft engaged in rescue and relief operations had used this airport," added Thulasidas.

The Rs 1,892 crore airport is located at Mattanur and is spread over 2,000 acres of land.

With this, Kerala will be the only state in the country to have four international airports with the others at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.

The first trial operation at the airport took place in February 2016 when an Indian Air Force aircraft landed and was received by former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

The airport will have parking bays for 14 Code E aircraft or 20 Code C aircraft and will be able to handle 2,000 passengers at a time.

The KIAL is slated to serve more than 1.5 million international passengers annually.

This airport will start off with a runway of 3,050 metres and in another 18 months after it opens, it will see its runway length increase to 3,400 metres and eventually it will touch 4,000 metres.

(With input from IANS)