Kochi: With the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) bracing up for partial shutdown for a four-month-long revamp, a winter schedule has been drawn up to facilitate smooth traffic and avoid the rush.

The runway would be closed for operation from 10am to 6am from this Sunday for resurfacing works. Majority of the flights in this time slot have been rescheduled between 6pm and 10pm.

The arrangement would see the termination of only two services in the international sector and four in the domestic sector.

The new schedule would be effective from October 27, 2019 to March 28, 2020, a CIAL press release said here on Friday.

The resurfacing work is to be held from November 20, 2019 to March 28, 2020, the release said.

At the same time, there would be new services launched to Dammam in Saudi Arabia and Island of Hanimadhoo in the Maldives, it said.

The CIAL handles more than a million passengers annually and hectic preparations, including the extension of operational time of check-in counters, were being done to ensure hassle-free passenger movement during the time of re-surfacing work.

It has been decided to operate a domestic check-in counter three hours before the flight departure. International passengers can already check-in three hours prior to their flight at the airport.

As per the winter schedule, the total aircraft movements in a week would be 1,346 including the new services. As the majority of international flights operate from 6pm to 9am, the re-carpeting will not have a major impact on international traffic. 

FLY NAS, a budget airline from Saudi Arabia, would operate three services a week to Dammam giving an extra fillip to CIAL's connectivity to Saudi Arabia with airlines like Saudi, Air India, Air India Express already operational to various airports in the Gulf country.

Indigo has also announced new Dammam service in the winter schedule apart from their Jeddah service.

Island Aviation Services, an airline owned by the government of the island nation of Maldives, would operate new thrice-a-week service to Hanimadhoo.

The CIAL was already connected with the island nation with a daily service operated by Indigo.

The domestic sector is catered to with new services to Delhi by Go Air, Delhi and Chennai by Air Asia India, Kolkata, Chennai and Tirupati by Spicejet.

Metros like Delhi and Bangalore would have 12 direct daily services and cities of Chennai and Mumbai would have eight services. The CIAL boasts of direct connectivity to Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Goa, Hubli, Kannur and Thiruvananthapuram. The international sector was being served with direct connectivity to Middle-East cities, Singapore, Colombo, Bangkok, Tel Aviv and Kuala Lumpur.

As per the prescribed practices, all airports should re-carpet their runways once in around 10 years. Kochi airport had started commercial operations in 1999 and its runway underwent first re-carpeting in 2009. This is the second re-carpeting work fixed for the 3400 metres long and 60m wide runway and will cost Rs 151 Cr. The work includes re-tarring, maintenance and overhauling of the entire stretch of the runway, taxiway etc.

The taxiway will get three new layers of bitumen; each layer will be 7cm thick. Only 150 to 200 sq m of the area would be renovated a day. (It is through taxiway aircraft move between runways and parking areas.)

The airport will deploy more staff at the car parking area and more conveyor belts to facilitate faster check-in. It has also requested the CISF to deploy more staff or security services.