Monday, August 27, 2007

Chennai International Airport

Chennai International Airport

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Chennai International Airport

IATA: MAA – ICAO: VOMM
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Airports Authority of India
Serves Chennai, India
Location Chennai
Elevation AMSL 42 ft / 13 m
Coordinates 12°59′40″N 80°10′50″E / 12.99444, 80.18056
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
07/25 12,001 3,658 Asphalt
12/30 6,708 2,045 Asphalt/Concrete
Statistics (2005)
Number of Passengers 10 million
The old terminal at Meenambakkam
The old terminal at Meenambakkam

Chennai International Airport (IATA: MAA, ICAO: VOMM) is located in Meenambakkam, 7 km south of Chennai, India. It has the IATA Airport Code MAA and it is the third largest international gateway into the country and the third busiest airport in India after Mumbai and Delhi, and the main air hub for south India, handling just under 10 million passengers in 2005 and serving more than 50 different airlines. It is also an important cargo terminus for the country, second only to Mumbai. Chennai is also a hub airport for Jet Airways, Indian (formerly Indian Airlines), Air Deccan, Air Sahara, now JetLite, and internationally, for Air India.

Contents

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[edit] History

Chennai had one of the first airports in India, and was the final destination of Air India's first flight from Bombay via Belgaum in 1954. The first passenger terminal was built at the northeast side of the airfield, which lies in the suburb of Meenambakkam due to which it was referred to as Meenambakkam Airport. A new terminal complex was subsequently built further south near Pallavaram to which passenger operations were shifted. The old terminal building is now used as a cargo terminal and is the base for the Indian courier company Blue Dart.

A scene from the viewing gallery
A scene from the viewing gallery

[edit] Structure

Chennai International Airport consists of three terminals: The old terminal at Meenambakkam is used for cargo, while the new passenger terminal complex near Pallavaram is used for passenger operations. The passenger terminal complex consists of the domestic and international terminals interconnected by a link building, which houses administrative offices and a restaurant. Although the complex is one continuous structure, it was built at different periods.[citation needed]

The first part to be built was the International terminal which had two aerobridges (jetways), followed by the domestic terminal with three aerobridges. After the completion of the domestic terminal, the old terminal at Meenambakkam was used exclusively for cargo. Recently the International terminal was extended further south by adding a new block which includes three aerobridges. At present, the new international block is used for departures while the older building is used for arrivals.

The airport has the honour of being the first ISO 9001:2000 certified airport in the country[1], which it received in 2001.

[edit] Facts and Figures

Currently, Chennai Airport handles about 25 aircraft movement every hour, which will be saturated by the year 2014-15. However, peak hour traffic handling capability will exhausted much earlier than that.

Anna International Terminal handled 2.8 Million passengers in 2006-07. It has the capacity of handling 3 million passengers annually, which will be saturated by 2007-08. Similarly, Kamaraj Domestic Terminal, which handled 5.9 million passengers in 2006-07, has the capacity to handle 6 million passengers annually. This capacity is also expected to be saturated by 2007-08. The airport's cargo handling capacity will be saturated around the same time.

[edit] Modernisation and Expansion

The airport at Meenambakkam has been slated for modernisation and expansion. The works are to be carried out by the Airports Authority of India and include the creation of a parallel runway, taxiways, aprons and new passenger handling buildings. The expansion works will involve the acquisition of land in nearby areas. The expansion of the existing airport would be taken up at Manapakkam, Kolapakkam, Kerugambakkam and Tharapakkam in Sriperumbudur taluk after a resolution to this effect was adopted by at the secretariat.

The government would provide suitable compensation to 947 households in these areas and also rehabilitation to them. The rehabilitation of the households would be done in the first phase of the expansion work itself.

The modernisation and restructuring is expected to cost around Rs 2,350 crore, of which the cost of construction of the runway, taxiway and apron would be around Rs 1,100 crore, while the cost of construction of the terminal building, cargo building, car park and face uplift would be Rs 1,250 crore.

Facts

1. In 2006-07, the existing airport handled 97,680 aircraft movement and its capacity to handle aircraft movement is likely to be saturated by 2014-15.

2. The existing airport can handle about 25 aircraft movement per hour and even after expansion, the airport will get saturated by 2014-15 and the Greenfield Airport has to be ready then. The same logic has been applied in Mumbai, where the Navi Mumbai airport is to be ready in time the existing ones gets saturated around the same time.

3. The AAI is of the view that a logical thing would be to construct a new domestic terminal and allow simultaneous use of the cross runways there. These things can take us through till the year 2015.

New Greenfield Airport to be set up near Chennai

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has announced the setting up of a new Greenfield Airport at Sriperumbudur and Tiruvallur taluks, apart from the expansion of the existing airport at Meenambakkam.

The greenfield airport would come up on 4,820.66 acres (19.5 km²), expansion of Chennai airport would be done on 1,069.99 acres (4.3 km²) at an estimated cost of Rs 2,000 crore.

Initially the work for the greenfield airports was be entrusted to the Airports Authority of India (AAI). However, the greenfield airport, mooted by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, coming up at Sriperumbudur near Chennai will be developed under a public-private partnership. The Prime Minister’s Committee has also asked for a pre-feasibility report for this airport.

The green field airport would have four runways.Eyeing Chennai airport, leading global airport developers are forging alliances with Indian players for bidding for the project. The players interested in the project include Changi Airports, Macquarie, GMR Group, GVK Group and Tata Group.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has clarified that “there is no role for the AAI in developing the greenfield airport near Chennai”.

[edit] Transport Links

The three language (Tamil, English and Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam railwaystation
The three language (Tamil, English and Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam railwaystation

The airport is situated on the busy Chennai - Trichy National Highway (a.k.a. Grand Southern Trunk or GST Road) and is also served by the Airport station (Tirusulam) on the Suburban railway network.

[edit] Terminals

Domestic flights in Chennai International Airport are handled at the Kamaraj Domestic Terminal (KDT), while the Anna International Terminal (AIT) is for international flights. The old terminal at Meenambakkam is used for cargo operations.

[edit] Kamaraj Terminal (Domestic)

  • Air Deccan (Agartala, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Kochi, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Madurai, Mumbai, Port Blair, Rajamundry, Trichy, Trivandrum, Tuticorin, Vijaywada, Vizag)
  • Alliance Air (Bangalore, Bhubhaneshwar, Delhi, Kolkata, Raipur, Vizag)
  • Go Air (Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad)
  • Indian (Ahmedabad, Calicut, Coimbatore, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Madurai, Mumbai, Port Blair, Trichy, Trivandrum, Bangalore)
  • IndiGo Airlines (Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore)
  • Jet Airways (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Madurai, Port Blair, Pune, Trivandrum)
  • JetLite (formerly Air Sahara) (Bangalore, Kolkata, Coimbatore, Delhi, Indore, Hyderabad, Mumbai)
  • Kingfisher Airlines (Bangalore, Delhi, Kochi, Mangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Vizag, Hyderabad)
  • Paramount Airways (Bangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Madurai, Thiruvananthapuram)
  • SpiceJet (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur)
  • Jagson Airlines (Pondicherry, Puttaparthi, Tirupathi)

[edit] Anna Terminal (International)

[edit] Cargo Terminal

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mihin Lanka to fly Chennai, Calicut,"Economic Times"
  2. ^ "Party in the sky", [Business-standard.com], 7 July 2007.
    • Tiger Airways (Singapore)[Starts 28 October 2007]{{cite news | publisher = [[Rediff.com]] | date = [[4 July]] [[2007]] | title = Now fly to Singapore at Rs 1,600! | url = http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jul/03tiger.htm}}

[edit] External links


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