The latest addition of theAirport in Kerala is opened in ‘Kannur’ district. The Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu along with the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan, both jointly flagged off the inaugural Air India Express flight, carrying a total of 186 passengers to Abu Dhabi.

The Kannur airport built completely on the concept of a public-private partnership model. The new addition is a class example to represent the new benchmark of how airports will be constructed in the country. The other three Airports of Kerala are in the city of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, and Kozhikode.

Kannur International Airport will start its operations in September 2019, like the claim made by Kerala Chief Minister ‘Pinarayi Vijayan’ following his meeting with Union Minister ‘Suresh Prabhu’. The Kerala government has 35 per cent stakes, 25 per cent by public sector undertakings, 10 per cent with the Airport Authority of India and the remaining 30 per cent is with Cooperatives, banks and individual shareholders. The Airport is spread across the area of 2,000 acres and costing close to Rs. 1,800 crore, to develop the new airport at Kannur in Kerala.

The airport has the total capability to handle about 2,000 passengers at a time and it is anticipated that KIAL will serve more than 1.5 million International passengers in a single year. It will definitely change the face of north Kerala along with tourism and business activities, especially handloom, textiles, and floriculture. Initially, the Kannur Airport will start its service with a runway of 3,050 metres and in later when the Airport will open, it will get its total runway length increase to 3,400 metres, and eventually, it will reach to 4,000 metres, and make it one of the 4th largest airports in the country.