Kerala floods: Kochi airport postpones resumption of operations till August 29

KOCHI: The Cochin International Airport management has postponed resumption of flight operations till August 29 after examining the losses caused by the floods.


After nearly 48-hours of cleaning operations, Cial management held a meeting with stake holders, including airlines and ground handling agencies, to review the damage and collectively decided to extend the date, which was announced as August 26 earlier this week, by three more days.

“All the stake-holders, informed that nearly 90% of their staf have been affected by the flood and are out of station, nearby hotels and eateries are still closed. As central Kerala is yet to recover from the post-flood trauma, it is daunting task to arrange local communication, logistics of catering which will cause a cascading effect on the passengers,” said Cial officials, who suggested that in view of these apprehensions they decided to extend the date of resuming operations for three more days.

Nearly 100 of Cial staff have suffered losses due the floods. Airport officials that they would still be coming to work to ensure that the airport can be up and running as soon as possible.

Cial has recruited around 150 workers to clean staff’s houses while they are engaged in getting the airport up and running. Currently, the airport estimates the loss from the floods, which affected their entire operations area, at around Rs 220 – 250 crores. Apart from missing out on operations and duty free revenue during Onam and Eid season, Cial has also suffered extensive damages to their runway, X-ray machines, conveyor belts and other electronic equipment. They also have the daunting task of setting up a 2.6km long peripheral wall around the operations area, which was damaged in the rains.