KANNUR: With only 68 days left for the first aircraft to land at Kannur international airport, Emirates Airlines has expressed its willingness to the Civil Aviation Ministry to start services from Kannur by mid 2016.
A traffic of 5,000 passengers per week is expected between Dubai and Kannur. At present, the Dubai government- owned Emirates is servicing to 90 destinations in India from Dubai.
Last year alone, 3.3 lakh passengers used Emirates from Calicut airport alone.
At a time when the services from Calicut are cut short due to various reasons, international services from Kannur would be a boon for the passengers as well as the tourism sector.
The passengers from Kasargod, Kannur, Wayanad and Coorg would prefer Kannur airport over Calicut and Mangalore (both table-top airports) once the airport is ready for service.
Kannur airport would have a runway of 3,050 metres by May, 2016. During the second phase, the authorities are planning to increase the length to 3,400 metres.
Once the runaway length becomes 3,400 metres, bigger aircraft like Airbus-380 can land there.
