The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation is seriously considering the restoration of Haj embarkation at the Calicut International Airport with Saudia (Saudi Arabian Airlines) commencing its services shortly.
It is learnt that Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu is in favour of restarting Haj operations from the Calicut airport with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) approving the operation of wide-bodied aircraft.
The operation of wide-bodied aircraft was banned for taking up repair of the runway in May 2015 in the wake of the Court of Inquiry report on the Air India Express Boeing 737 crash in Mangaluru in May 2010.
Now, Saudia, one of the Haj flight operators from India, has got the approval to operate services using wide-bodied aircraft under Code E from Calicut airport. The DGCA has given approval to Saudia to operate Boeing 777-200 Extended Range and Airbus 330-300 after meeting the safety assessment and mitigation measures for such aircraft.
Air India
Air India is yet to get approval from the regulatory body while Dubai-based Emirates has planned to conduct a safety assessment and take mitigation measures for the resumption of Code E aircraft operations.
M.K. Raghavan, MP, said the Ministries of External Affairs and Civil Aviation would examine the issue of giving approval to Saudia to recommence Haj operations from the Calicut airport. Previously, the Centre had given the green signal for the airline to operate services from Thiruvananthapuram airport till 2020.
However, Ministry of Civil Aviaition Joint Secretary Shefali Juneja has clarified the approval would not be a hindrance to Saudia restoring service from the Calicut airport.
