Air India reduces flight operations, passenger traffic dips; What is happening in Kannur airport?

KOCHI: Former CIAL MD and IAS officer VJ Kurian in his interview with an English daily revealed the reasons for the plummeting popularity of Kannur airport.

VJ Kurian:

“The location is not ideal for an airport. Rs 300 crores were spent on Kochi airport, while a humungous Rs 2000 crore was used for Kannur airport. This led to higher interest payments. My former colleague Dinesh Kumar is the MD of Kannur. He says the reason for the crisis is the reluctance of foreign airlines to operate from this airport.

But if there are enough passengers, wouldn't airlines like Indigo and Air India be able to operate the service? If the central government designates it as a ‘port of call’ people will trust it more and services will also rise in numbers. Take the example of Kochi airport; only Air India operated from this airport for two years before being designated as 'port of call'.

Kannur Airport has been facing a set of issues for the past few years. Recently, several flights, including Air India Express decided to cut short their services from this airport citing the lack of passengers. With the increase in flight fares, there has been a dip in passengers from this airport. Last March only 95,888 passengers traveled through Kannur airport. Kannur-Mumbai Indigo service has been reduced to four days a week due to a lack of passengers.