KANNUR: When Kannur International Airport becomes operational on Sunday, the air traffic control will be safe in the hands of people from Kannur. When the first flight from the airport takes off on Sunday, it will be controlled by three Kannur natives and interestingly, one among them is a woman.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) air traffic control Deputy GM G Pradeep Kumar, Assistant GM Sreelesh Sreedharan, and Junior Executive P V Hridya are excited over the opportunity to control the first commercial flight taking off from the airport in their hometown.
“No doubt, it will be a proud and emotional moment,’’ said Pradeep Kumar, who is also heading the overall operations of air traffic services at Kannur Airport. A native of Peravoor near Iritty, Pradeep Kumar joined AAI in 1988 and has served at Mumbai, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Coimbatore airports.
Pradeep has been stationed in Kannur for the past two years after AAI entrusted him with the responsibility of setting up Air traffic-related facilities at the airport. According to Pradeep, he has an emotional bond with the airport as he was unofficially involved in the feasibility study carried out by the AAI in the late 1990s for the airport. Pradeep is experienced in air side operations and terminal management also. Air Traffic Control assistant GM Sreelesh Sreedharan is a native of Pattiam. Sreelesh was previously serving at Mangalore airport. “I am very lucky to have the rare opportunity to be a part of air traffic control in the airport in my hometown,’’ said Sreelesh. Besides Mangaluru, he has served at Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram ATCs. He had also been an instructor at Mangaluru.
In Kannur he dones role of instructor-cum-controller.
Junior air traffic control executive P V Hridya from Dharmasala is the woman presence among the ‘Kannur team’. She joined AAI in 2016 and has served at Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru airports.
“This is an exciting opportunity to serve at the airport in my hometown from the very first day of its commercial operations,” she said.
Assistant GM L T Renjini from Kottayam, assistant managers Nithin Bose and Vishnu S L from Kochi and junior executive Kiran Sekhar from Malappuram are the other Malayali air traffic controllers at the airport. Supporting staff members include Suja C V from Neeleswaram and Chandran V V from Nadapuram.
More staff is expected to join the air traffic services soon. The area in a radius of 40 km and 14,500 ft height will be under the control of Kannur ATC, Pradeep said.