Will Kannur Airport snatch passengers from Mangaluru Airport?

coastaldigest.com news network
October 1, 2017

Mangaluru: Even though Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) director V V Rao has rubbished the possibilities of losing passengers to Kerala’s fourth international airport, which is expected to be commissioned within a few months, his counterpart at Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL) has spelt out a greater competition.

If everything goes as expected commercial operations at Kannur Airport would commence by mid-2018. Already 95% of the work on the air-side and 90% of the work of the integrated terminal building of the Airport are over. Apron, flyover, service roads, fire rescue station, IMD’s met park, STP, service block and auxiliary buildings have been completed a few months ago.

Unlike Mangaluru Airport, Kannur Airport is built on a public private partnership (PPP) model, in which the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has an equity stake of 10 percent, the state 35 percent, public sector units 25 percent and investors 30 percent. The new airport would 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.

According to Rao, international and domestic passengers from Kasaragod and Kodagu region would never prefer Kannur Airport over Mangaluru Airport. He opines that only passengers from Kannur area, who were boarding flights from Calicut airport, may use Kannur Airport, but not those from Mangaluru region.

On the other hand, Managing Director of KIAL P Bala Kiran is expecting passengers not just from Kasaragodu and  Kodagu regions but also from Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Mysuru and coastal districts of Karnataka too as the new Airport is expected to handle more Gulf flights.

The KIAL authorities are also planning to hold talks with Karnataka government towards development of Kodagu and Kannur Road via Virajpet. The Centre’s consent towards the survey of Mysuru-Thalassery Rail line via Madikeri as announced in the recent budget will be a stimulus in the promotion of tourism and goods services.

“Kannur Airport looks for business from passengers who have been depending on either Kozhikode or Mangaluru Airports. Moreover, we have enough land for setting up allied business centres to boost the business for airlines. We will also give aprons for night stay for aircraft,” the chief project engineer of KIAL, told coastaldigest.com.

Gulf Airlines

Even five years after obtaining international tag, Mangaluru Airport has failed to attract foreign airlines, whereas many Gulf-based airlines have expressed desire to operate services to the Kannur even before the commissioning of the Airport. Apart from Air India, Air India Express, GoAir, Air Arabia, Qatar Airways, Air Asia India, Ethihad Airways, Jet Airways, Silk Air, Gulf Air, Oman Air, Spice Jet, Emirates, Fly Dubai, and Indigo are the airlines that have come forward.

The Runway

After 2010 Mangaluru air crash, the AAI had proposed to expand MIA’s new runway. The existing runway meets the requirements of Airbus 320/321 and Boeing-737 aircraft. Expansion is must to felicitate the landing of wide-bodied aircraft like Boeing-777 and Boeing-747. However, recently the AAI took a U-turn and indefinitely postponed its proposed runway expansion plans. AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra recently wrote to Karnataka Chief Secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia saying the expansion project is not feasible.

Quoting AAI, Rao said that the runway expansion project cost turns out to be too high, financially not viable and there is no guarantee that wide-bodied aircraft will land at the Airport even if huge amount is invested in extending the runway. Even if the runway is extended from the existing 2,450 metres to at least 3,050 metres (minimum requirement for wide-bodied aircraft to land), the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) may not give permission for it as it is a table top runway, he says.

On the other hand, Kannur Airport has a grater runway. The construction of a 3050 m runway began in Q4 2013 and completed on 29 April 2016. In September 2016, the KIAL board decided to increase the runway length to 4000m (13,123 ft) in Phase I itself along with a full parallel taxiway to enhance safety as reported earlier. When completed, Kannur will be the fourth airport in India to have a runway length of 4000 m after Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

Kodagu farmers upbeat

In the absence of the airport, the coffee planters and farmers in Kodagu involved in pepper cultivation, orange and anthurium farming were yearning for a better market.

Even if the farmers wanted to export their produce to other countries where such crops are much in demand, they were dependent on Bengaluru or Mumbai Airports. Although there was much demand for orange and anthurium in Gulf countries, the lack of facilities had become a hurdle.

Now, they see a ray of hope in the upcoming Kannur Airport, which may not only create further demand for native products, but also boost tourism, feel the representatives of Kodagu District Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KDCCI). Recently a team of KDCCI also held talks with their counterparts from North Malabar Chamber of Commerce and Industry from Kerala towards promoting tourism opportunities.

Comments

Tom
 - 
Monday, 2 Jul 2018

Let India progress. Let there be a healthy competition for the over all growth of our country. Kannur's main competion should be with Kochi. Let all the airports in India rise above the Indian standard!

faheem
 - 
Thursday, 12 Apr 2018

I will choose kannur airport, because price will be less, i request more flights from kannur to gulf region.

ali
 - 
Thursday, 7 Dec 2017

As a mangalorean it is better to land in Kannur in order to get relief from trouble by saffron authorities for no reason.

Sameer
 - 
Wednesday, 8 Nov 2017

I am from Mangalore, I will definitely use Kannur Airport. Mangalore Airport staff/authorities are infamous for mistreating the passengers. Last year, they didn't return my visa copy. I had to ask for it. 

 

Recently, after arrival they took more than 1 and half hour to release the luggage from the aircraft to the belt. All passengers were waiting tirelessly.

 

Rizwan
 - 
Monday, 2 Oct 2017

Some mangalorean May use Kannur to avoid  the mangalore table top runway & trouble of  air indiA express staff and flight.

Ahmed K. C.
 - 
Monday, 2 Oct 2017

Those passengers from Northern Kerala presently using Mangalore airport would surely use Kannur airport in future. Also those people from around Mangalore who are troubled by authorities at Mangalore may also move towards Kannur airport. 

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News Network
February 24,2020

Lucknow, Feb 24: The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board on Monday accepted the five acres of land provided for construction of the mosque in Ayodhya.

The Board also decided to form a trust to oversee the construction of the mosque.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the Board's Chairman Zufar Faruqui.

Apart from this, the trust will also construct a charitable hospital, public library and a centre showcasing the heritage of Indo-Islamic civilisation which will also serve as a research and study centre for the same, according to a press release by the board.

The appointment of members to the trust will be announced following its creation, the release added.

The Supreme Court had on November 9 last year directed the Central government to hand over the disputed site at Ayodhya for the construction of a temple and set up a trust for the same.

The apex court had further directed the government to allocate an alternative five acres of land at a prominent location in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque to the Sunni Waqf Board.

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News Network
May 6,2020

May 6: Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday termed as "inhumane" the government's decision to "impose excessive costs" on NRIs and expatriates for bringing them into the country from COVID-19-affected nations.

He demanded that the central government fly in the poor and vulnerable free of cost while charge the others with normal fares instead of high costs.

"The central government's decision to impose excessive costs on NRIs flying in special flights from the Covid-affected countries is an inhumane act," he said in a statement.

Venugopal said it was due to protests by a large number of expatriates and their relatives as well as the general public over the past few days that the central government took the decision to bring back Indian citizens from abroad.

"However, it is cruel that the Central government has taken advantage of this plight of expatriates by increasing the price of air fares up to three times. This is inhumane," Venugopal said in his statement.

He urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide free travel to the most vulnerable, unemployed, sick and pregnant women and to others on normal fare.

Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 while the Navy deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Those availing the repatriation flights will be charged, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a virtual press conference in New Delhi. A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged Rs 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight Rs 12,000, he added.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned airline operate the non-scheduled commercial flights till May 13 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.

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Shodhan Prasad
May 14,2020

Dubai: The father of a 16-year old girl who came on a visit visa to the UAE to visit him is desperate for help as she has been hospitalised, even as he has been rendered jobless.

On February 6, Amber D’Couto flew into Dubai from Mangaluru, India, along with her older sister, Alison, 19. The girls wanted to visit their dad Vivian D’Couto who was working in an automobile company at Jebel Ali.

The father was overjoyed to meet his girls until things took an ugly turn.

Two months into her stay, Amber fell seriously ill, even as D’Couto was served a termination letter by his company.

D’Couto said his daughter, a Grade 10 student, was perfectly healthly but suddenly developed high fever and began vomiting. She was rushed to a private hospital in Qusais which could not accommodate her because of the ongoing COVID-19 situation.

On April 30, she was admitted to another private hospital in the same area. After testing negative for COVID-19 thrice, she was diagnosed with acute pancreatis and Rheumatoid fever.

While the girl remains in hospital, the bill has spiralled to over Dh50,000, D’Couto said, adding that without a job now, he had no means to pay the huge amount.

“Amber is a very sweet child and a very bright student. She was living a very healthy life prior to coming to Dubai. But she is so ill now and under round-the-clock vigil in the ICU. The treatment for her condition is very specific and costly.”

A worried man, he said: “My daughter was on a visit visa and she had no insurance. We appeal to compassionate people to help us out in this difficult hour. Due to the current situation, I have lost my job and I am unable to pay for her medical expenses. Her condition has not stabilised yet and I am taking each day as it comes. I trust the doctors to help her recover, and we hope to be repatriated to India at the earliest so she can get further medical care.”

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