Renovation of Madurai Airport is nearing completion. There were conflicting reports on the press about new airport will be functional by end of June, July this year. But going by the photos it seems it will take at least another 3 months. And then add another month or two for a convenient date of opening ceremony. The probable expected date can be any time in September – October this year.
Pics on Airport developments were posted in SkyscraperCity Madurai Airport Forum by Harish Ravi & Ananth. They mentioned that pics were taken by one Mr.Gnanavelu. Please view all the pictures at the following places.
Post No.349
Post No. 353
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I’ve posted couple of sample photos here for a quick view.
Some more photos were available at All about Madurai forum
After years of lying staid & proposals on paper, Madurai airport renovation is slowly nearing completion.
photo by Athisaravanan
Official line is that new facilities will be ready by March 2010, but in reality, it may take couple of more months. With these new facilities the much awaited international flight services are expected to be started soon.
Going by the stats given in AAI, (http://www.aai.aero/traffic_news/aug2k9annex3.pdf) Madurai Airport handles about 30,000 passsengers per month. On the number of passengers, it stands 11th among domestic airports. Guess the figures were high during October (Deepavali time). Ticket rates went as high as Rs.11,000 during Deepavali season.
The regular flow as in August can easily cross 50K mark once flights to Singapore, Kualalumpur & Dubai starts from Madurai.
It was proceeding in snail’s pace. I have already mentioned about Madurai airport looking the same way since 70s. But finally, it is beginning to change. The construction for a new terminal is going on.
There is a scale model on display at the Airport. The contractors of the new terminal have more details & images on their website. The rendered photos of proposed new terminal is here.
The Madurai airport is slowly gaining in stature. The increase in number of flights to Madurai were slow and unnoticed. Still a long way to go, but now, 10 flights arrive and depart at Madurai. Of these 9 of them either goes to Chennai or fly via Chennai.
On last count, the operators are…
- 4 flights – Paramount (3 Chennai, 1 Bangalore via Chennai)
- 3 flights – Air Deccan (2 Chennai & 1 Bangalore direct)
- 2 flights – Jet Airways (Chennai)
- 1 flight – Indian (Mumbai via Chennai)
Get the latest flight schedules here. Srilankan airlines is said to be keen on operating a flight to Madurai. But space for immigration check etc were woefully inadequate.
Madurai Chamber of Commerce campaigns to open a central institute for pilot training, touting Madurai as a ‘fog free’ airport. ‘Fog free’ is indeed a different view of this sun-drenched city.
I distinctly remember our day out to Madurai airport as a school kid in 70s. As a field trip from the school, we went there on a chartered bus. We were eager to see the airport (nee, aerodrome) & the dakota plane in close quarters.
As we approach the airport, we saw a low single storey building with a small diamond shaped glass house at it’s top center. The whole place looked barren and lots of whithering leaves littered all around. Once our initial interest waned out, we just yawned and shuffled around for an hour to see a lonely dakota arrives and takes off. Except for the brief time of lazy activity, it looked like a forelorn building.
Well, things haven’t changed much since then. Apart from lengthening the runway etc. The building looks the same. There is a car parking lot and additional counters for the private carriers. But nothing much to show the difference of 30 years.
And it looks almost the same from the sky. Have a look at the Google Map at www.wikimapia.org .
