Kozhikode: The Airports Authority of India has announced the resumption of wide-bodied aircraft operations from Calicut International Airport at Karipur from Wednesday.
The operations were suspended from May 2015 due to safety reasons. Subsequently, AAI took action for strengthening and re-carpeting the runway and grading of runway strip to cater to the requirement of heavy aircraft operations, the AAI said in a press release. "To improve safety, the AAI has also taken measures to increase the runway end safety area as directed by the regulatory authorities and installed simple touchdown zone flights on both runways," the release said.
Further, a compatibility study and safety assessment were conducted in accordance with the guidelines of ICAO, the UN agency, as recommended by the joint inspection of Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and AAI team to assess the suitability of the aerodrome for the safe operation of wide-bodied aircraft. Based on the compatibility study report, safety assessment and risk mitigation measures, the DGCA has issued NOC for wide-bodied aircraft from Calicut airport. M/s. Saudia is commencing its services with wide- bodied aircraft (A330-300/B777-200ER) to Riyadh and Jeddah, it said.
Sanction more A/C buses to Karipur airport: MP
M.K. Raghavan MP has demanded the KURTC to conduct more airconditioned services from various parts of the region to Calicut International Airport, Karipur, as the number of passengers using the airport will increase when the wide-bodied aircraft resume operations Wednesday.
In a letter to its chairman Tomin J. Thachankary, Mr Raghavan said that the number of services to Karipur is much lesser, compared to the Cochin International Airport, which has 35 A/C buses, connecting Fort Kochi - Nedumbassery - 10, Ernakulam - Nedumbassery - Kozhikode 10, Kozhikode - Nedumbassery - 5, Kozhikode - Malappuram - Nedumbassery - 5, while the public sector airport here has just five, that too as a stoppage between Kozhikode and Nedumbassery, he said. He also said that due to lack of rail connectivity majority of passengers opt for road travel.
