Daytime flights at Calicut airport to be rescheduled for rescheduling of runways from January

day time flight operations Calicut The international airport at Karipur will be rescheduled for eight months from January next year as the airport prepares to redevelop its runway.

A team of experts from the Airports Authority of India (AAI), who visited Karipur on Tuesday, inspected the airport’s runway, runway end safety zones (RESA) and other operational areas.

eight months of work

Airport officials said recarpeting of the runway and installation of runway centre-line lights would begin from January 2023. Work will continue for eight months, and will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to shift daytime operations. tonight.

The team held discussions with various stakeholders including revenue officials, airline officials and airport officials. He also examined the 14.5 acres of land acquired by the state government for the purpose of RESA expansion.

RESA extension required

The AAI Engineering Wing will study the possibilities of constructing a high embankment for the runway and RESA extension. Since this is a table-top runway, any extension of the runway or RESA will involve a lot of filling work.

The expansion of RESA at Karipur has become a major necessity, especially after the tragic accident of Air India Express flight 1344 on August 7, 2020, in which 21 people including two pilots were killed and 167 others were injured. It was assessed that long-term RESA could have prevented the accident. The flight from Dubai overtook the touchdown point of the runway while landing and plunged deeply off the tabletop runway after running through 90 m RESA.

It is proposed to extend the RESA to 240 meters. When RESA was expanded a few years ago, the runway was shortened, forcing the wide-bodied aircraft to cease operations from Karipur. Resumption of operations from Karipur requires expansion of runways and RESA for wide-body flights.

Read also: Expansion of tabletop runway at Calicut airport a daunting task