Kannur International Airport (KIAL), the fourth international airport in Kerala, would be inaugurated on December 9, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday.
The announcement comes a day after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued the aerodrome licence to the greenfield airport.
The KIAL, the second greenfield airport built on a public-private partnership (PPP) model in the state, has come up on about 2,300 acres near Mattannur. At present, the airport has a 3,050-metre runway which would be extended to 4,000 metres, the chief minister said.
“The airport is equipped for operations of large aircraft, including Boeing 777,” Vijayan said.
The apron has space for 20 aircraft, six aero-bridges, a 97,000-sqm passengers’ terminal, 24 check-in counters, baggage drop counters, 32 emigration counters, four e-visa counters and 16 customs counters. Work on a 1.05 lakh-sq ft air cargo complex is underway.
The new airport is located about 20 km from Kannur city and two km from Mattannur, on the Kannur-Mattannur-Mysuru Road. The airport is also expected to boost tourism in Kodagu and Mysuru in Karnataka. The airport is about 90 km from Madikeri and 158 km from Mysuru.
Eleven international and six domestic carriers have expressed interest in operations from the airport. “The land acquisition process for extending the length of the runway to 4000 metres is in progress. With a 4000 metre long runway, Kannur airport will become the largest airport in the state,” the Chief Minister’s Office had said recently.
The first phase has cost Rs 1,892 crore. Work on the airport had commenced in February 2014. KIAL is the fourth international airport in the state after Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.