Salem Airport is fit for operations and efforts have been taken to revive it, Secretary for Ministry of Civil Aviation R.N. Choubey said here on Sunday.
He told this to The Hindu after chairing a review meeting here to revive the airport. Established about two decades ago, the Salem Airport had only one flight a day connecting the city to Chennai. However, commercial operations came to a standstill after the airline operator shutdown operations three years ago.
Mr. Choubey said that there are 300 smaller airports and airstrips in smaller cities and towns in the country that are not operational. Similar efforts, as in the case of Salem, have been taken up for other airports too. Some of the airstrips were laid for World War II and is not in use since then. Construction of buildings, providing infrastructure and carrying out maintenance works will be done in other airports and damaged airstrips. The efforts to revive airports is under the Regional Connectivity Scheme proposed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Measures have been taken to try to attract airlines to Salem (and other unused airports) and connect it with nearby bigger airports by offering tax concession and other facilities.
Mr. Choubey said the scheme would be launched from April 1 next year, provided the airlines show interest to operate flights to the airports.
The Airport Council International (that conducts an annual study of airports across the globe) has given Chennai International Airport rating of 4.6 out of 5 points. 4.5 points are required for airports to be rated top-class. He said that the rating is based on passenger amenities, safety and a host of other parameters.
