Kannur International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Kannur, the Mahé district of Puducherry and the rest of northern Kerala in India. It is located in Mattanur, east of Kannur and east of Thalassery. It is owned and operated by Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL), a public–private consortium. The airport opened for commercial operations on 9 December 2018.
The airport served one million passengers in just nine months since commercial operations began. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the airport could maintain stable growth, and it achieved the milestone of two million passengers in the twenty-third month of operations in November 2020. Though several international airlines have reportedly shown interest in operating from Kannur, they are unable to operate regularly scheduled flights from Kannur International Airport as the airport lacks point of call status. The airport handled 1.5 million passengers in 2025, marking the highest annual passenger traffic since it began operations. The previous record was 1.47 million passengers in 2019.
The first aircraft to land was an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft that touched down at the airport on 29 February 2016. The first trial passenger flight operation was conducted on 20 September 2018, using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft of Air India Express. On the inaugural day, 9 December 2018, an Air India Express flight IX 715, operated with a Boeing 737-800, took off to Abu Dhabi at 10:13 (IST), becoming the first commercial passenger aircraft to depart from Kannur. The airport was inaugurated by then Minister of Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu and Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan.
History Kannur had an airstrip used for commercial aviation as early as 1935 when TATA airlines operated weekly flights between Bombay and Thiruvananthapuram – stopping at Goa and Cannanore. This airstrip was located within the Kannur Cantonment area at Fort Maidan. The operator started service to Kerala on 29 October 1935 but service did not last long.
The long-standing demand for a full-fledged airport was only conceptualized in 1997, when C. M. Ibrahim, the then Union Minister of Civil Aviation, backed the proposal for an airport in the district. The vast extent of land at Moorkhanparamba near Mattannur was identified for the project a few months later following a hectic search for land for developing the proposed airport. The then Chief Minister of Kerala V. S. Achuthanandan laid the foundation stone for the airport at the project site marking the formal commencement of construction activities on 17 December 2010 at a function attended by the then Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel. Though the State government accorded sanction for the Kannur International Airport project in January 1998 and appointed Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) as the nodal agency for its implementation, it had to wait for a decade until it was finally approved by the Central government in January 2008. During the period, a private agency appointed by Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (KINFRA) to study techno-economic feasibility report submitted its report. The earlier site proposed at Madayipara was dropped owing to ecological concerns. Two vast plateaus near Mattannur were identified for the airport, namely Moorkhanparamb and Velliyamparamb, with about 1300 acres and 800 acres of land to be acquired from each respectively.
After a prolonged wait, the airport received in-principle approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Union cabinet in January 2008. Land acquisition began in December 2008 after issuing notifications and fixing compensation. The public company Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL), under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, was registered in October 2009. The foundation stone for the airport was laid on 17 December 2010 by then-Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan. On 26 November 2013, KIAL and Larsen & Toubro Ltd signed a contract on construction work at the airport. In January 2014, the Kerala State Government Minister for Excise and Ports announced the Kerala State Government and AAI plan to sign an MoU on the equity structure of Kannur International Airport Limited.
Construction work at the airport was inaugurated by Defence Minister and senior Congress leader A. K. Antony on 2 February 2014. On 29 February 2016, the first trial flight landed, and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy flagged off the inauguration of the runway.
Kannur International Airport commenced operations on 9 December 2018. The first commercial aircraft to operate out of the airport was Air India Express IX 715 (Boeing 737-800) to Abu Dhabi, which took off at 10:13 (IST) on the same day. The flight was jointly flagged off by the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu.
Aircraft of several foreign airlines touched down for the first time at Kannur International Airport in June 2020 as part of the repatriation flights arranged owing to the COVID-19. Widebody aircraft also landed for the first time in June. Airbus A330-200 of Kuwait Airways, was the first foreign airline and also the first widebody aircraft that landed at Kannur. The aircraft of Kuwait Airways, Flydubai, Jazeera Airways, SalamAir, Gulf Air, Air Arabia, Etihad Airways, Saudia, and Oman Air operated to and from Kannur during June–August 2020 as repatriation/chartered flights.
Construction By August 2010, acquisition of about 1200 acres of land was completed in two phases, and acquisition of another 780 acres was in progress for the third phase.
In July 2011, the Oommen Chandy government decided to make Airports Authority of India a consultant tasked with preparing a revised techno-economic feasibility report and a new master plan and design. As the Airports Authority of India failed to submit the report in time, the consultancy was canceled and Cochin International Airport (CIAL) was entrusted to prepare the detailed project report, but the floating of tenders for construction was further delayed as experts found several technical flaws in the design prepared by CIAL.
Land acquired by the government under KINFRA was transferred to KIAL earlier in February 2012.> In August 2012, Mumbai based company STUP Consultants Pvt Ltd. was made consultant to review the revised report by CIAL and to assist KIAL in other aspects of the project, but the agreement was canceled within two weeks as it was found that the company had been blacklisted in other states. Fresh bids were solicited and Hong Kong-based AECOM Asia was awarded the consultancy. The project office was inaugurated at Mattannur in December 2012.
EPC-I & EPC-II
It was decided to build the airport in two stages of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC). The first stage, EPC-I included complete earthwork, runway, taxiway, apron, ground lighting and associated infrastructure such as perimeter and operational walls.
The second stage, EPC-II, involved the integrated terminal building, air traffic control tower, administrative and technical blocks, and facilities in the buildings such as aerobridges, escalators, elevators and counters. Infrastructure and engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was awarded work for EPC-I on 27 November 2013, after inviting bids. Airport work was flagged off by the then Defense Minister A.K. Antony at a public function in Mattannur on 2 February 2014. L&T also won the tender for EPC-II works including the construction of the passenger terminal building (PTB) on 25 June 2014. A huge amount of earthwork was carried out at the site including the cutting and filling of a total of land at a maximum rate of per day. About 50% of the land works and foundation and piling work for constructing the PTB and air traffic control tower were completed by March 2015. By August 2015, about 60% of the runway was completed. Steps were initiated to procure lifts, a baggage handling system, passenger boarding bridges, and the four Airfield Crash Fire Tenders. About 70% of the work on the runway, apron and associated work, and 52% of the PTB and allied work was completed by December 2015. Works for a fuel farm also began the same month. The then Kerala Airports Minister K. Babu ruled out the popular demand to extend the runway to . Meanwhile, the third phase of land acquisition involving about 785 acres on Velliyamparmb, which began in 2011, had been progressing at a very slow pace and only 612 acres were acquired in five years. The late decision to acquire more land for a runway extension from to on the western side, in the finishing stages of the project, triggered protests from residents.
A trial landing was conducted on a completed runway by a 14-seater code B aircraft on 29 February 2016. The air traffic control tower was not involved as it was still under construction. Technical assistance of the Aviation Control of the Calicut airport was sought for the landing. No runway calibration, or testing of flight parameters, was done during the landing. The trial landing was organized as a major event by the authorities and involved extensive public participation. The Oommen Chandy government faced fierce criticism for organizing such an event when the whole airport project was not complete. The opposition termed it an "election stunt" as Kerala was going to the polls in the coming months. Around were spent on the event.
By May 2016, the runway was completed with work on the grading side strip on both ends progressing. 68% of the PTB, 75% of the ATC tower and much of the work for the fuel farm was completed. Work on the ancillary buildings – fire rescue station, power house, the area for the India Meteorological Department (IMD), sewage treatment plant, service block, and the airfield ground lighting substation were progressing. The newly elected Pinaryi government decided to begin land acquisition to extend the runway to in August 2016.
Phase I & Phase II
The Phase I expansion period is from 2016–17 to 2025–26. It includes a runway extension, a full-length taxiway, commissioning of a fuel farm, an aviation academy etc. and developing city side facilities. Works for the Phase-I expansion are already progressing. A cargo terminal and cargo complex which was initially in Phase-II has been shifted to Phase I and is under construction. The Phase II expansion will happen from 2026–27 to 2045–46. It includes another runway and a dedicated domestic terminal at Veliamparamba, and a long flyover to link it with Moorkhanparamba.
Management Kannur International Airport is the second greenfield airport to be built on a public private partnership (PPP) platform in Kerala. The airport is managed by Kannur International Airport Ltd.(KIAL), a public company. Venu V, IAS, is the current managing director of KIAL. Chief minister of Kerala holds the post of chairman. The principal investor in KIAL, the Government of Kerala, owns 32.86% of the company's shares. Other shareholders are: 22.54% by State and Central Public Sector Undertakings, 9.39% by Airports Authority of India, 35.21% by others, including QIBs, Individuals, Companies, Cooperative, Banks/Societies, and other legal entities as approved by the Board of Directors from time to time.
Passenger terminal