Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu on Sunday inaugurated the Kannur International Airport, taking the total number of international airports in Kerala to four.
Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode are the other three cities with an international airport.
The airport stretches across over 2,000 acres of land at Mattanur, a town 25 kilometres from Kannur town. Constructed at a cost of close to Rs 1,800 crores, the airport has an integrated terminal for domestic and international passengers,
A 3,050-metre-long runway. The new airport can handle around 2,000 passengers at a time. International flights operating from Kannur will include those to the Oman, UAE and Qatar. The airport will also be connected to Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai.
The airport is expected to boost tourism in Kasargode, Kannur and Wayanad.
On its inaugural day, Air India Express and GoAir had released their schedule of flights from the airport.
Vijayan and Prabhu flagged off the first flight from the airport, an Air India Express flight to Abu Dhabi.
