An Air Indigo flight from Abu Dhabi touched down at the Kochi airport a little after 12.15 p.m. on Sunday, marking the resumption of operations at the airport after it was shut down two days ago due to heavy rains.
The airport authority had announced that operations would resume three hours ahead of the schedule announced earlier.
“Airport is ready. Flight operations will resume at noon tomorrow. That is ahead of deadline. Airlines are instructed to facilitate services accordingly,” the Cochin International Airport Limited spokesperson told reporters.
There are no hitches in the operations so far.
Earlier, the official said water level in apron areas of the airport was receding and cleaning operations had begun.
“Ferry operation was successfully carried out. Six out of eight stranded aircraft departed, while the remaining two will fly to their destinations tomorrow as scheduled services,” he said.
The Kochi International airport had on Friday suspended all operations till 3 p.m on Sunday as the runway area in the airport was waterlogged due to floods.
The operations were suspended as there was a rise in water level in Periyar river and a canal adjacent to the airport due to heavy rains.
The spokesperson said the decision to resume services from the airport was taken at a review meeting.
All the 24 airlines were briefed and were instructed to facilitate services accordingly, the spokesperson said.
He said CIAL decided to resume operation ahead of schedule as the recovery works were found effective.
“Runway is intact in flood this time. No tears/marks/slush traits reported on runway. This really helped,” he said.
According to him, T3 apron was the most affected area.
Parts of taxiway, three taxiway links were also inundated. T1 apron was partially affected and 100 metre portion of southern perimeter security wall collapsed in the floods, he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
