The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is all set to expand the terminal building at Mangaluru International Airport to accommodate more passengers in the international arrival hall.
The building will be expanded on the exit side of the airport by 90 m x 55 m. With this, more space could be created in the hall to handle about 375 passengers an hour, airport director J.T. Radhakrishna told The Hindu .
At present, the hall can handle 125 passengers an hour. When the hall is ready, passengers of three flights can be handled at the same time, as opposed to one flight now. He said that now the hall has one conveyor belt. After the expansion, two more will be added.
Bids for the expansion work will be called next month, Mr. Radhakrishna said.
The airport handled 94 international operations a week now, including arrivals and departures to West Asia.
Mr. Radhakrishna said the airport would have two more aerobridges for passenger convenience; it has two at present. Larger planes such as Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 could make use of the aerobridges. ATR planes cannot.
The airport will soon have two more aprons (airport parking slots), making it eight in total. Once the additional aprons are ready, two of the existing six aprons would be modified for installing aerobridges, he said.
The four aprons with aerobridges will then handle the larger planes, while the remaining will handle ATR aircraft.
