First commercial flight lands at naval airport

Kochi: The first commercial flight landed in Kochi at the naval airport here on Monday after air traffic to the city was shut down due to the massive flooding at the Cochin International Airport (CIAL). Alliance Air, a subsidiary of the state-run carrier Air India, from Bengaluru landed at 7.10 a.m. at INS Garuda, a naval air station which has been opened up by the Indian Navy for commercial operations.

“Today is, in fact, a very historic day. A substantial amount of work had been undertaken to ensure the facilities available to the passengers. We have segregated the entire parking place in a manner to ensure continuous and unhindered operations to take place. Primarily, we are here for the rescue operations and have ensured that the commercial aircraft operation does not hinder the operations of the INS Garuda in managing the rescue and relief operations. But we have temporarily stopped the naval airmen training to make the entire facility for relief operations and also by acting as a civil terminal to support the operations,” said commodore R.R. Ayyar, commanding officer, INS Garuda.

The 70-seater passenger plane Alliance Air landed with passengers who were worried about the state of their home and their kin after the flooding. Most of them have relatives living in relief camps in various parts of Aluva and Paravoor.

“My house is at north Paravur and I came to know from TV that water has entered the first floor of the houses in our areas. My 26-year-old son and 24-year-old daughter were trapped there and later rescued by the Navy,” said Lissy Jacob who flew from Kuwait to Bengaluru in the flight that was recently scheduled to CIAL.

Another passenger said he was directly heading to the relief camp to find his brother, who is a resident of Aluva and who was shifted to the camp recently. He had been trying to get back to Kerala for the past three days.

This is the first time in years that the Navy base has been opened for civilian traffic. The Nedumbassery airport, which handles nearly 30,000 passengers daily, is shut until August 26 due to floods and heavy rain, which later prompted the Indian Navy to offer its airport for civilian use.

This establishment had been converted at extremely short notice to handle operations of civil aircraft. It is true that we have lost some training time but our trainees have got many experiences from these rescue operations. We can’t imagine what kind of education we might be getting when there are people in distress who need help to survive and are to be brought to safety,” said Rear Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, Chief Staff Officer, Southern Naval Command.