Kannur: The north Malabar region got a global gateway on Sunday after Kannur International Airport (KIAL), the fourth in Kerala, was thrown open by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu.
An Air India Express flight with 180 passengers to Abu Dhabi became the first flight to be flagged off from the airport at 10 am. All passengers received a gift each from the airport authorities on the occasion.Budget carrier GoAir will also launch direct flight services to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai from Kannur International Airport on Sunday.
GoAir will operate a special flight between Delhi to Kannur to facilitate guest movement, the airline said in a release. Kannur would be GoAir’s 24th destination in its domestic network, it added.
Ahead of its inauguration, singer and director Vineeth Sreenivasan released a deeply emotional and melodious song, ‘Aakashapakshi Chekeruvan’, highlighting the expectations of the people from the airport.
The 1 minute 40 second-long theme song exhorts a bird (a metaphor for the new airport and its planes) to carry the state’s hopes on its chest and flap its wings as it flies into the sky.
Translating and explaining the lyrics of the song, a local media report said that as the instrumentation reaches a rousing crescendo, it urges the airport to take the state of Kerala to greater and greater heights.