The tickets of Air India Express from Kannur to Abu Dhabi on 9 December 2018 were sold in a span of one hour, making it one of the fastest flight ticket sales reported in Kerala. The ticket sales reportedly started at 12.40pm on Tuesday, 13 November 2018 after an announcement on Air India Express’s Facebook page and got sold by 1.35pm of the day. The return tickets from Abu Dhabi to Kannur were also sold out within an hour.
Kannur International Airport (KIAL) is all set to be inaugurated on 9 December 2018, and Air India Express’s flight from Kannur to Abu Dhabi is the first flight from the airport. Air India Express’s Boeing 737-800 has a seating capacity of 186 seats. Union Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu along with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the airport. The flight will take-off to Abu Dhabi at 10 am on the day.
The cost of Express Value ticket was Rs. 9998.81 and that of Express Flexi tickets were Rs. 33,439.01. The sale closed at Rs. 25,000 for Express Value ticket.
The flight will return to Kannur the same night of 9 December and will leave to the next destination Riyadh. From December 10, there will be four flights in a week flying to Doha.
A large number of people from Malabar region are employed in GCC countries, and it makes sense to choose the inaugural flights to these regions. People from districts such as Kannur and Kasargod are currently using Kozhikode or Cochin airport for their air traveling needs. The opening of KIAL solves this hassle for the people.
Besides Air India, other service providers such as Indigo, SpiceJet and Go Air are also in talks with Kannur International Airport. However, the schedules of their flights remain unveiled.
Kannur International Airport (KIAL) was established after long speculations and discussions. The airport, built under private-public-partnership (PPP), has a built area of 2,300 acres, with a runway length of 3,050 meters. The authorities are extending the runway length further to 4000 meters. The airport is designed with state-of-the-art amenities suiting the needs of a varied class of passengers, including 24 check-in counters, 32 immigration counters, self-operated baggage counters, check-in machines, etc.
Kannur International Airport (KIAL) is located 20km away from Kannur city and 2 km from a place called Mattanur on Kannur-Mysore highway. Kerala has airports in Kozhikode, Trivandrum, and Kochi as well.
