Calicut International Airport,

Karipur
Issues and Recommendations

7/17/23
Anupam Anil Research Report
 INDEX
1) INTRODUCTION
2) CURRENT STATUS
3) GOVT INTERVENTIONS IN THE
ISSUE
4) COMPARISON WITH ANOTHER
NATIONAL AIRPORT
5) SOME SOCIO-ECONOMIC
FACTORS
6) THINGS TO BE DONE FOR THE
BETTERMENT
7) CONCLUSION
8) REFERENCES
 Introduction
Calicut International Airport (CCJ), also known as Karipur
Airport, is an international airport serving primarily the
districts of Kozhikode and Malappuram in Kerala, India. It is
a public sector government owned airport located in Karipur,
about 25 Km from Malappuram and 28 Km from Kozhikode
city. In 2014, traffic at Calicut International Airport exceeded
2.5 million passengers, and the total number of passengers in
2014-15 was 2,583,740. It was the twelfth busiest airport in
India in terms of overall passenger traffic. The airport was
inaugurated in April 1988, and it was given international
airport status on February 2nd 2006. The airport serves as an
operating base for Air India Express. Air Arabia, Air India,
Emirates, Etihad Airways, Indigo, Jet Airways, Oman Air,
Qatar Airways, Saudia, SpiceJet and First Air airlines also
operated various international, national and cargo services
from the airport. Calicut International Airport is considered as
the gateway to the Malabar region of the state of Kerala.
Calicut Airport was the fifth airport in terms of income
generation under AAI. The AAI, along with Air India, used to
get remarkable earnings from this airport, as thousands of
NRI’s relied upon this airport to meet their traveling
requirements.
The airport was partially closed from May 1st 2015, and the
AAI has imposed restriction on wide body aircrafts such as
but not limited to Boeing 777 and B747-400 and Airbus 330
series for a period of six months due to runway re-carpeting
which is long overdue at Calicut Airport. As a result,
Emirates, Saudi Arabian Airline and 2 Air India flight
operations have been moved temporarily to the Private owned
Cochin International Airport, and they have not been
reinstated even after Fifteen months of suspending their
operation at Calicut Airport. The continuing delay have
caused huge losses for the Airport Authority of India,
Government Exchequer and the Business Community due to
the unprecedented drop in cargo business and passenger
movement from the region.
As of November, 2016, Calicut International Airport is served
by about 9 passenger and cargo airlines which fly to 13
destinations in India, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia. On 7 August 2020, Air India Express Flight
1344, a COVID-19 repatriation flight on the Dubai-
Kozhikode route, overran the tabletop runway upon landing in
bad weather and crashed into the runway slope, killing 21
passengers. As a result, no wide-body aircraft has permission
to fly to Kozhikode Airport.
Current Status
As of 7 July 2022, runway renovation is in progress. It was
reported that wide-body airlines like Emirates had ceased
flying to Kozhikode Airport due to the unsafety of the runway
and the airport. Only low-cost airlines like SpiceJet and Air
India Express are now flying to Kozhikode Airport, since they
have narrow-body fleet that can land safely on the tabletop
runway.
About the controversy over allowing of wide body aircraft at
Calicut in 2018 after being barred in 2015 due to safety fears,
the minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the Air India
Express plane which had met with the mishap was a narrow
body. “As far as wide body aircraft are concerned, DGCA had
carried out a thorough assessment and prescribed
comprehensive mitigation measures. Airports Authority of
India strengthened the runway and thereafter necessary
permissions were issued in 2018 to operate wide body aircraft.
Consequently, certain carriers started operating some flights
with wide body aircraft to Kozhikode Airport. (This) airport
has a total footfall of 32 lakh passengers per annum with 70-
80 aircraft movement per day. The total wide body operations
are only 4% of the total…. we should wait for the outcome of
the statutory enquiry and then visit the issue with facts. Instant
civil aviation safety expertise by self-styled experts should
better be avoided,” he added.
Govt. Intervention in the Issue
A committee comprising aviation experts were formed in
September 2021 to over-see implementations of the
recommendations made in the Kozhikode accident
investigation report. The final report, released a month earlier
in the August 2021 made 43 recommendations and out of 41
recommendations accepted by the committee, 24
recommendations were implemented b7y the respective
stakeholders as per action plan. It recommended the existing
90m-long RESA be filled with 15cm sand or soft soil for
effective deceleration of aircraft that go off the runway. The
state government may be requested to provide sufficient
suitable filled up levelled land for runway expansion, it said,
setting a March 2023 deadline. If land was not available by
then, the runway length should be reduced to 2,540m to
provide RESA of 240m from the ends of the runway strip, the
report said.
Large aircraft such as A321s and B737s may no longer be
allowed to use the Kozhikode airport from August 1, with the
civil aviation ministry giving an ultimatum to the Kerala
government on the transfer of land that will be used to extend
the current runway. Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya
Scindia wrote to the state government in this context on June
26th 2023. The letter points out that while the state and the
Airports Authority of India had agreed that the former would
provide the land free by the first week of July, and that the
latter would bear the cost of levelling, there has been a “lack
of prompt actions” from the state government. The ultimatum
would appear to be directed at ensuring the state sticks to the
July deadline. The issue has to do with the runway end safety
area, or RESA, the area at the end of the runway that acts as a
buffer and prevents loss of lives and damage to the aircraft in
case it overshoots or undershoots the landing strip. The
Ministry of civil aviation has already said that the Airports
Authority of India (AAI) will be forced to curtail the length of
the runway at Kozhikode airport if the Kerala government
fails to provide detailed estimates and the procedure adopted
for levelling and stabilising the land required to provide
adequate Runway End Safety Area (RESA) at both ends of
the runway.
The panel led by Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Fali Homi Major
also recommended that if the required levelled land is not
made available by the end of financial Year 2022-23, the
runway length should be reduced to provide required RESA
of 240 metres from the ends of the runway strip to check
undershooting and overshooting of aircraft.
Comparison with another National Airport

Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow

Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, an airport
situated at Lucknow is also having similar characters of the
Calicut International Airport, Karipur with around 2,742 m of
runway which is slightly small in length, in comparison to
Calicut Airport. In 2015, traffic at Lucknow airport have
exceeded 3.2 million passengers. The airport has domestic
flights and also international flights to Saudi Arabia, UAE,
Oman and Singapore. As of March 2016, it is the 12th busiest
commercial airport in India in terms of passenger traffic, and
is also the second busiest and largest in North and Central
India after IGI airport, New Delhi. The airport was awarded
AAI's "Best Airport" award in July 2013 along with Jodhpur
Airport. Lucknow airport was rated second best in the
category of small airports catering to 2-5 million passengers
per annum by Airports Council International. In 2014-15
periods, Calicut Int. Airport was the 12th busiest airport in
India where CCS Int. Airport was at 13th rank in India. But
presently, the CCS Int. Airport is at the 12th rank and the
Calicut Int. Airport at 19th rank. Through this small
comparison, we can understand the regression of the Calicut
Int. Airport, Kozhikode in a small 8 years gap.
Some Socio-Economic Factors
In a Technical study report by Yasir Muhyudeen Abdullah &
Meher Naushad on the “The Status & Future of Calicut
International Airport” released on Nov 2016, there are some
socio-economic factors also mentioned regarding the growth
of the Calicut Airport.
As a direct effect of the partial closure, the Calicut
International Airport has been dropped from the 12th to the
16th position of busiest commercial airport in India in terms
of passenger traffic, it is also noted that there is a huge impact
on the Cargo movement without wide-body aircraft on the
route, as majority of the cargo from Calicut airport are
perishables and was sent to Saudi Arabia and UAE.
Immediately after suspending the wide-body aircrafts at
Calicut Airport, those services were shifted to Kochi
International Airport and thus a good share of passengers
moved to Kochi. Though it has adversely affected the revenue
of CalicutAirport, revenue of Kochi Airport which is owned
by a Private limited company CIAL, marked steep growth.
The government owned Calicut Airport has suffered 30
percent loss as a result of the shifting of airlines such as
Saudia, Emirates and Air India to Kochi since May 2015.
Whereas, CIAL has registered 21 per cent growth in its net
profit at ₹175.22 Crore in FY 2016, the company’s turnover
also posted a 27 per cent growth at ₹524.53 Crore which is an
increase of 178 per cent since 2003-04. These figures clearly
show that after suspending wide body flights in Karipur,
CIAL marks tremendous growth.
Therefore, CIAL was the sole beneficiary until Kannur
Airport began its operation. This may be one of the reasons
why the Government officials and political parties are not
showing any interest in bringing back Calicut Airport to the
limelight. The denial of landing rights for wide body aircrafts
in Calicut International Airport even after the completion of
Phase 1 works, has caused tremendous miseries to expatriates
and their families. The impact of Suspension of Wide-bodied
Aircrafts can be summarized as:
a) Decrease of more than 2500 passenger seats.
b) More than 30% loss in revenue for the public sector airport.
In FY 2013-14, there was recorded a profit of 18.67 Crore.
c) More than 80% loss in cargo revenue. In terms of cargo
business, the Airport was placed 11th among Indian Airports.
d) Adverse impact on local business, tourism sector, taxi
services etc.
Though Airlines such as Saudia, Air India and Emirates have
expressed their willingness to resume flights to Karipur,
Airports Authority reiterates their stand that unless and until
the proposed developments are carried out, no wide-bodied
aircrafts would be allowed.
Things to be done for the betterment
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) projected a land
requirement of 14.5 acre (07 acre on Runway-10 side and 7.5
acre on Runway-28 side) to the Kerala government to provide
adequate RESA at both ends of the runway at Kozhikode
airport. Some-how, it’s not easy to acquire the land from the
surrounding local population of the Airport. Even before the
2020 incident, plans for expanding the airport's runway had
met with protests from the local population. Those living in
the surrounding areas have complained that land had been
acquired several times before for various developments at the
airport, following which people had to relocate. The prospect
of another relocation due to runway extension is not
something the locals want to go through. The Govt of Kerala
have told the civil aviation ministry that they will provide the
suitable land for the adequate RESA at both the ends of
runway already but after that its already half a year without
any movements of the land acquirement from the Govt of
Kerala. The Aviation ministry have given a time limit of Aug
1 2023 for acquiring the land, if the Govt of Kerala fails to
provide the required land in the given period of time then the
curtailment process of the runway will be initiated by the
Ministry of Aviation.
Conclusion
Presently, The Airports Authority of India (AAI)
accomplished an incredible milestone by completing re-
carpeting work at Calicut International Airport in a record
time of 120 days, much ahead of the scheduled date. The
project aimed at enhancing the safety standards of the airport
was completed with an estimated project cost of Rs 60 crore
including re-carpeting of the 2.86 km runway, fixing of
Runway Centre Line lights and Touchdown Zone lights. The
re-carpeting work of any runway of over 2.5 kms takes 8 to 9
months on average The work for re-carpeting the runway of
Calicut International Airport commenced on January 27,
2023, and successfully completed on June 2, 2023, well
before the onset of monsoons in Kerala. The re-carpeting
work of any runway of over 2.5 kms takes 8 to 9 months on
average The work for re-carpeting the runway of Calicut
International Airport commenced on January 27, 2023, and
successfully completed on June 2, 2023.
So, let’s hope that the Govt of Kerala will provide the
required land for the extension of RESA, resulting the
development of the Airport through the comeback of the
wide-bodied aircrafts of the giants like Emirates, Saudia, Air
India, etc.
References;
1. https://infra.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/aviation/aai-may-be-
forced-to-curtail-runway-length-at-kozhikode-airport-to-ensure-adequate-
runway-end-safety-area-says-centre/96258758
2. https://simpleflying.com/tabletop-runway-at-kozhikode-airport-safety-
recommendations/
3. https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/what-happened-after-
dgcas-show-cause-notice-to-calicut-international-airport-in-2019-
exclusive/634027
4. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/kozhikode-airport-faces-
ultimatum-to-transfer-land-for-runway-extension-threatening-large-aircraft-
use-from-august-1st-101687892524293.html
5. https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/aais-calicut-
international-airport-completes-runway-re-carpeting-work-in-record-
 time20230606191922/#:~:text=The%20re%2Dcarpeting%20work%20of,o
nset%20of%20monsoons%20in%20Kerala.
6. https://www.malayalamdailynews.com/wp-
content/uploads/2020/08/Calicut-International-Airport-Technical-Study-
Report_01-1.pdf
7. https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/aais-calicut-
international-airport-completes-runway-re-carpeting-work-in-record-
time20230606191922/#:~:text=The%20re%2Dcarpeting%20work%20of,o
nset%20of%20monsoons%20in%20Kerala.
8. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/safety-issues-raised-about-calicut-
airport-were-addressed-says-hardeep-puri/articleshow/77436978.cms