KOCHI: Former Union Minister KV Thomas has written to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep S Puri, urging him to take steps, for shifting Cochin International Airport’s(CIAL) domestic flight services to the Naval Airport in Willingdon Island from November. The airport at Nedumbassery will be closed for four months - from November 20 to March 28 - for mandatory re-carpeting of the runway.
CIAL had recently instructed airlines operating flights from the airport to re-schedule daytime services to the night as there will be no flights from 10am- 6pm during the period. “The closure of Nedumbassery Airport(CIAL) for flight operations will hit the domestic tourist flight operations. Hence, domestic flights may be shifted to the Naval Airport in Willingdon Island,” said Thomas, urging the Civil Aviation Minister to “take a decision in this regard at the earliest”. Thomas, the former Ernakulam MP, also marked a copy of the letter to Defence Minister and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
He told Express the closure of the airport during daytime will badly affect the domestic airlines and hit the tourism sector hard.