Kochi: The mandatory re-carpeting of Cochin International Airport’s (Cial) sole runway in November will be a challenging task for authorities. Officials said the previous re-carpeting was done in 2009 when Cial had less than 70 flights a day. Now, it has increased to 260 services catering to nearly 30,000 passengers each day.
Though airlines have been intimated about re-carpeting months ago, authorities said some fights in the domestic sector may be cancelled or diverted in the winter schedule issued in November. Moreover, crowd management, security, public transport, cargo movement during the partial shutdown of the airport would require a new plan.
The major recarpeting work will be from November 20, 2019 to March 28, 2020 and there will be no flights from 10am to 6pm. Daytime flights will be rescheduled along with the night time operations. Officials said Cial has already intimated airlines to reschedule their timetable for the said period to provide updated schedule to passengers.
As most international flights operate from 6pm to 9am, re-carpeting is unlikely to affect them. But 35 domestic services have to be rescheduled from 6pm to 10am or rerouted.
“Cial grew in terms of passenger and flight traffic in the past decade. As per DGCA and ICAO’s prescribed norms, all airports should re-carpet their runways once in 10 years. We cannot delay it any longer because if the bitumen layer of the runway starts developing cracks, it will be dangerous. Winter schedules are being reported by respective airlines and we are yet to get a confirmation. If most daytime services are rescheduled to the 6pm-10am slot, the number of flights may come down. The operational management will be challenging, but we are doing everything to avoid troubles for passengers. All stakeholders got enough time to prepare for the partial closure as they were intimated six months in advance,” said the Cial official.
07/08/19 Anantha Narayanan/Times of India
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Though airlines have been intimated about re-carpeting months ago, authorities said some fights in the domestic sector may be cancelled or diverted in the winter schedule issued in November. Moreover, crowd management, security, public transport, cargo movement during the partial shutdown of the airport would require a new plan.
The major recarpeting work will be from November 20, 2019 to March 28, 2020 and there will be no flights from 10am to 6pm. Daytime flights will be rescheduled along with the night time operations. Officials said Cial has already intimated airlines to reschedule their timetable for the said period to provide updated schedule to passengers.
As most international flights operate from 6pm to 9am, re-carpeting is unlikely to affect them. But 35 domestic services have to be rescheduled from 6pm to 10am or rerouted.
“Cial grew in terms of passenger and flight traffic in the past decade. As per DGCA and ICAO’s prescribed norms, all airports should re-carpet their runways once in 10 years. We cannot delay it any longer because if the bitumen layer of the runway starts developing cracks, it will be dangerous. Winter schedules are being reported by respective airlines and we are yet to get a confirmation. If most daytime services are rescheduled to the 6pm-10am slot, the number of flights may come down. The operational management will be challenging, but we are doing everything to avoid troubles for passengers. All stakeholders got enough time to prepare for the partial closure as they were intimated six months in advance,” said the Cial official.
07/08/19 Anantha Narayanan/Times of India
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