Kerala: Kannur International airport to be commissioned on December 9

Kannur International Airport, the second greenfield airport set up under the public-private partnership (PPP) model, near Mattannur in Kannur district would be inaugurated on December 9.

The date for inauguration was fixed as the Director General of Civil Aviation has accorded commercial flight operation licence to the airport, a release from the office of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Friday.

The airport built in an area of 2,300 acres has all modern passenger amenities.At present the length of the runway is 3,050 metres and work to extend the length of the runway to 4,000 metres had already began, it was stated.

The airport would have 24 check-in counters, self-baggage drop counters, self-checking machines and 32 immigration counters.

Work on seven aerobridges has been completed and the airport has arrangements to facilitate landing of big aircraft like Boeing-777. It has space to park 20 aircraft at a time.The Kannur airport will be the fourth international airport in the state, the others being in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.

Kannur airport is the second to be built under PPP route after Nedumbassery International Airport at Kochi.

It is only 20 km away from Kannur city, and 2 km from Mattannur on Kannur Mattannur Mysuru road.

Construction of the airport, considered a flagship programme of the previous Congress-led UDF government, was inaugurated by then Defence Minister and senior Congress leader A K Antony on February 2, 2014.

Among the objectives of the airport include transforming the North Malabar region into a highly developed growth centre for travel, tourism and industries.