The Union Civil Aviation Ministry will reschedule the runway re-carpeting works at the Karipur Airport, which was scheduled to commence from June 1 onwards.

This was informed by Kozhikode MP M K Raghavan after meeting the Union civil aviation minister, Ashok Gajapathi Raju in New Delhi. Its learned that the minister had asked the civil aviation secretary, V Somasundaram, to come up with a revised schedule to carry out the re-carpeting works and a high-level meeting will be convened in Thiruvananthapuram to be chaired by Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy to finalize the alternative arrangements required during the re-carpeting works. The final decision regarding the rescheduling would be decided at this meeting.

The Karipur airport authorities have already announced the closure of runway from 12 noon to 8 pm from June 1 onwards to facilitate the re-carpeting works which will continue for 15 months. During this period, wide-body aircrafts operated by airlines like Emirates and Saudi Airlines will not be allowed to land at the airport.

However, Airport officials at Karipur have not received any official communication regarding this. They are moving ahead with the plan to shut down the runway partially from May 1.

The decision to close airport partially has drawn the ire of passenger especially the closure is planned during the summer holidays in Gulf countries where a large number of families are travelling to North Kerala through this airport.