The Hindu : Kerala News : Seminar to showcase airport’s potential

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Friday, Oct 31, 2008
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Kerala

Seminar to showcase airport’s potential

A Correspondent

The idea is to raise the airport’s revenues

OPPORTUNITIES GALORE: The Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery.

Nedumbassery: The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), in association with the International Airport Council (IAC) and Airport Authority of India (AAI), will organise an international seminar on ‘airport as a commercial hub’ in May, next year. “The idea is to raise the airport’s non-aeronautical revenues along with the aeronautical revenues. We will ensure the representation of international airports, including the other green field airports across the globe, so that we can formulate the most viable option out of the various expert opinions on the subject,” said Dr. C.G. Krishnadas Nair, MD, CIAL.

Dr. Nair observed that the seminar would also give an opportunity to display the airport’s potential advantages to the outside world. The company had already made arrangements to issue a notification on the seminar in ‘Airport International’, an exclusive magazine for the aviation industry, he added.

He also spoke of the plans of CIAL to conduct a seminar on the prospects tourism in the State, in association with the State Tourism Department, in January, next year. The company will also organise a round table conference of cargo liners to discuss the possibilities of converting the aerodrome into a ‘freight hub’ with the proposed opening of a dedicated cargo terminal here. The M.D. said that the re-carpeting work on the runway, beginning on November 15, will upgrade the airport to qualify for the next stage of Instrumental Landing System (ILS) by AAI. “The system they are installing here belongs to the Cat 1 type (Category 1) and with this re-carpeting we will be finishing the other works on the runway, including the centre line lighting, to enable it to qualify for the installation of Cat-2 ILS,” he said.

Meanwhile, the upgrading of the present ILS system here has been facing an inordinate delay even after the completion of its re-installation works. The AAI officials informed that the system would start functioning once the calibration flight arrived and tested its efficiency. The flight is expected to reach here this week itself.

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