Kochi: Air operations from Kochi has resumed as a Bengaluru flight landed at the airstrip at the naval base in Kochi on Monday. The stopgap arrangement has been made as air services from the Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery has been suspended over the last few days owing to waterlogging on the runway amid incessant rain that has been lashing Kerala over the last several days.
The first scheduled flight of Alliance Air from Bengaluru landed at the airstrip of naval base, INS Garuda, on Monday morning. Along with Alliance Air, a subsidiary of national carrier Air India, budget carrier IndiGo will also operate relief flights from Kochi Naval Base to Chennai and Bangalore from August 21 to 26.
It is after 18 years that civil air services resumed here. Prior to the opening of the Nedumbassery airport, the naval airstrip also functioned as the Cochin airport.
As the Nedumbassery airport remains shut till August 26, public intending to reach Kochi or fly out from here were inconvenienced.
The decision to use the naval base airstrip for the time being was taken at a meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), the country's apex body to handle emergency situation, headed by cabinet secretary P K Sinha.
The decision was taken after a 'proving flight' was flown to the airstrip on Saturday to study the safety aspects of operating ATR-type aircraft from there. ATRs are usually small 70-seater aircraft that can land even in shorter runway span.
The Alliance Air flights scheduled are as follows:
∙ Bengaluru - Kochi 6 am - 7.20 am, 10 am - 11.20
∙ Kochi - Bengaluru - 8.10 am - 9.30, 12.10 pm - 1.30 pm
∙ Coimbatore - Kochi - 3.40 pm - 4.25 pm
∙ Kochi - Coimbatore - 5.15 pm - 6 pm
∙ Coimbatore - Bengaluru - 6.30 - 7.30
∙ Bengaluru - Coimbatore - 2.10 pm - 3.10
Air India and its low-cost arm Air India Express had earlier said their flights scheduled to depart from the Kochi airport will operate from Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode till the Kochi airport is made functional.
