Dubai: Heard rumours of Cochin International Airport (CIAL) closing completely for repairs? You heard wrong, CIAL confirmed in a notice published on their official website.
However, if you have booked or are planning to fly in to Cochin soon, your flight may be rescheduled.
From Wednesday, November 20, 2019 to Saturday, March 28, 2020 the airport is conducting repairs to its runway which will affect some flights and their timings, CIAL said on their website.
The flights affected are those that are scheduled to arrive or depart between 10am and 6pm [IST] from the airport, i.e., daytime flights.
All the flights scheduled to arrive or depart from 6pm to 10am - during the night and early morning hours - will not be affected.
Airlines have been issuing information for individual flights in and out of the city, so contact your airline for more information and clarification on timings.
What are they doing?
CIAL has instructed all airlines operation daytime flights through the airport to reschedule because of mandatory re-carpeting works on the runway. The major re-carpeting work will start on 20th November 2019 and continue till 28th March 2020, the website informs passengers and operators.
Why do this?
Re-carpeting is mandatory maintenance for airport runways - to be done at least once in ten years. For Kochi airport, this is the second recapeting after its fist one in 2009.
The airport started operations 20 years ago, in 1999. The international airport, according to their website, handles 240 aircraft movements a day including domestic and international flights.
What next?
If you have a flight booked from now to the end of March, contact your airline for updated timings. I fyou haven't booked as of now, plan your flight to leave or arrive from 6pm to 10am local time to avoid later rescheduling.
