Karipur continues to face challenges until major air services return

Kondotty: The biggest crisis before Kozhikode airport presently is the suspension of large aircraft services. It has been over three years since large airplanes abandoned Kozhikode’s Karipur airport. This ban on large aircrafts came after the plane crash on August 7, 2020.

As part of security precautions, large aircrafts will not be allowed at Karipur unless the length of RESA (Runway End Safety Area) is increased from the current 90 to 240 meters. As of now, only Code C aircrafts are operational in Karipur. At full capacity, Code C planes cannot fly for more than four to five hours. The plane needs to fly with a limited weight capacity.

Although Air India used a 189-seater aircraft for the Hajj pilgrimage service, it carried only 145 passengers onboard. Operating lightweight services like this turn out to be a loss for airlines. Larger planes can carry three times as many passengers as mid-sized planes at less than half the cost.

Companies were not affected by larger aircrafts operating at a reduced carrying capacity. Boeing 777-300 ER aircrafts have a carrying capacity of 375 tonnes. Karipur has the maximum capacity sanctioned as 305 tonnes. Larger aircrafts can fly continuously for up to 17 hours on a full tank of fuel. 

Up to 135 tonnes of the carrying capacity of an aircraft is set aside for fuel load. The planes that run services in Karipur do not require so much fuel. All the international flights are towards the Gulf region. The flying time for this is a maximum of five hours. Therefore, the services conducted using large planes here proved to be quite profitable for airline companies. Maximum cargo was usually loaded apart from passengers. 

This is not the first time that large aircrafts were withdrawn from Karipur. It happened in 2015 as well when the ban was implemented due to re-carpeting of the runway.

It was in 2002 that big planes began services in Karipur with Air India’s Hajj pilgrimage jumbo jet landing at the airport. Large aircraft services existed till 2015. The eight month ban in 2015 for re-carpeting was lifted only three years later. 

Emirates Air maintained its counter at Karipur for a year and a half, hoping that the ban would soon be lifted. However, as permissions continued to be delayed, they retreated and never returned to Karipur again.

On 8 August 2018, when the ban was lifted, Saudi Airlines began service followed by Air India. Qatar Airlines was also granted permission but they could not start the service. 

Karipur has the minimum required length of RESA. Larger aircrafts and longer services will return to Karipur if there is a 240 meter long RESA along with the existing 2860 meter runway.