A major gateway to Gulf destinations from India, the Kozhikode international airport will be partially shut down for runway repair for 15 months from May 1.

This will disrupt air travel to Gulf countries, affecting lakhs of migrants working there. Wide-bodied aircraft such as Airbus 300, Boeing 747 and 777 will not be allowed for eight months from May and, for seven months after that, they would be allowed only for certain hours a day.

₹60-crore work “The partial shutdown will affect the operations of wide-bodied aircraft,” Peter Abraham, Director of the airport, said. Medium-sized and small aircraft will have no problems. He said the strengthening and e-carpeting of the runway were absolutely necessary because of safety issues. The work will cost around ₹60 crore.

The partial shutdown will hit the airport’s revenues drastically as 90 per cent of the traffic is of international passengers who are mostly carried by wide-bodied aircraft. Last year, 25.2 passengers passed through the Kozhikode airport.

52 schedules The airport hosts 52 schedules (26 arrivals and 26 departures) a week. The Gulf schedules are mostly operated by Saudi Airlines, Air India and Emirates.

Abraham hoped that the three major airlines would make some alternative arrangements such as deploying medium-size aircraft instead of the wide-bodied ones. For the airlines, the partial shutdown will cause significant loss of business.

It will also increase traffic at the Kochi and Mangaluru airports. The Kannur international airport will only be operational next year.

Non-resident Keralites (NRK) associations and business people in North Kerala are upset that the operations of the Kozhikode airport, which their link to West Asia, is going to be disrupted for such a long period.

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