When will Madurai become/operate International Customs Airport - Madurai Airport

Madurai airport is poised for a major leap with the decks being cleared for the operation of international flights. Madurai airport is all set to become International Airport, but no Airlines is operating yet. All approvals from Centre is provided for Madurai Airport to operate as Customs and International airport, but the airlines are not ready to operate from Madurai yet. The operators are afraid to operate of any loss. Even the Tamil nadu Chamber of Commerce had appealed in all possible ways, but no international flight yet. Only Domestic flights are operating. That is the situation today. One more reason told is - Bilateral Airport Treaties entered between India and other countries(except Srilanka) does not include Madurai.

The notification declaring Madurai airport as customs airport was issued by the Centre in January. Subsequently we started the works facilitating the establishment of customs counters. Now, space for customs as well as immigration counters has been earmarked. As many as ten immigration counters are at the airport.

Sankiah Pandian said that the airport was ready with all facilities required for international flight services. "We are only waiting for international flight services to commence operation ," he said. The airport was established in the year 1957 and a new swanky terminal was inaugurated in 2009 sprawling across 189,000 sq ft. Only four airlines currently operate flights to Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.

In another note - Sri Lankan Airlines, Manager (Tamil Nadu and Karnataka), B. Pirathapan, said that unless the travel agents guaranteed the profitability of flight operations to Colombo, the airlines industry, which was going through a rough patch, would not come to Madurai. “We are for making profit. There should be enough number of passengers to convince our bosses to launch operations from Madurai,” he said.

The senior president of Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, S. Rethinavelu, said that the chamber had promised Air Asia to bear the initial loss, if any, caused to the airlines on operation in Madurai-Kuala Lumpur route. “We are sure there would be no loss at all,” he said. 

The products of textile, rubber, jasmine and fish processing units were among the major goods that would give potential for international cargo movement. International operations would also help domestic tourism and medical tourism, he said. Around 50 to 70 passengers were going to each of foreign destinations of Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Dubai/Sharjah, Muscat and Colombo from the southern districts every day, he added.

Airport Director, Sangaiah Pandian, promised to extend all help to the airlines, including night operations from Madurai. The airliners need not bother that Madurai airport would eat into their revenues from Tiruchi. 

Madurai International Airport Authorities Contact Details are here.

Apart from having been declared as a ‘Customs Airport,' it also has a world-class high-tech integrated terminal built at a cost of Rs.130 crore. The runway has been extended to 7500 feet to facilitate introduction of international flights.

Chamber senior president S. Rethinavelu informed the Union Minister that there was lot of potential for both passenger and freight traffic for international flights from Madurai to Malaysia, Singapore, Muscat, Dubai, Sharjah and Sri Lanka. However, during chamber delegations to some of these countries, they were told by international air liners that, with the exception of Sri Lanka, Madurai Airport had not been included in the Bilateral Airport Treaties entered between India and those countries. This was preventing air line companies from operating international flights to Madurai Airport.

Few inches away for Madurai Airport to get international connectivity/terminal

If you have seen Madurai Airport recently, you will be surprised and it looks great!!!!

The year 2012 may bring International Air Connectivity to Madurai, the 'temple city' in southern Tamil Nadu, India. Srilankan Airways chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe had agreed to introduce a direct flight from Sri Lanka to Madurai this year. This would enable onward connectivity to international destinations via Colombo. Srilankan Airways has also setup a stall in Madurai Trade Fair to advertise the launch.

Indian Carrier Air India has confirmed international flight to Singapore from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh via Madurai starting March 2012. The Members of Parliament from Madurai and Virudhunagar have agreed to take up the issue of new bilateral agreements needed with the Union Government of India to ensure more international flights from Madurai.

The Travel Club of Madurai have provided the information that a major part of the passengers boarding international flights from Chennai, Tiruchi and Thiruvananthapuram airports were from the southern districts. There are efforts taken to bring connectivity with Kuala Lampur.

Content sourced from wikipedia

New flights in Madurai to Delhi and Mumbai - SpiceJet

Low-cost airline SpiceJet Monday added Madurai to its route map, connecting the temple town with daily flights to Delhi and Mumbai via Chennai.

'Madurai is the gateway to south Tamil Nadu and is also known as the cultural capital of the state. We are happy to announce Madurai- home to famous Meenakshi temple- as our 20th destination,' the airline said.

The airline's Boeing 737-800, named Cardomum, landed in Madurai from Chennai around 9.45 a.m. with the traditional water salute accorded to it.

According to SpiceJet officials, Madurai is the first new destination added by the carrier to its route map after Sun TV Network promoter Kalanithi Maran bought into the airline through KAL Airways Pvt Ltd in June this year for around Rs.750 crore.

SpiceJet will go international next month, launching flights to Kathmandu Oct 7 and Colombo in Sri Lanka Oct 9.

The airline met the government's criteria for starting international operations in May as it completed five years of operations and augmented a fleet of more than 20 aircraft.

courtesy: s i f i e

A new outlook of Madurai International Airport's utility

After many news broadcasts and little delays, at last Madurai International Airport is inaugurated and opened recently.

Now, what?

How do we have the Airport functioning and useful!? Madurai Airport will function as international airport, only when international flights come in and go out of Madurai Airport. Why there is no news on that? Here is the reason -

Flight operators were complaining that Customs Checking Operation division has to be opened in Madurai Airport, then only International flights can operate. When asked with the Customs operations, they are telling International Flights has to operate then only Customs can be started.

Having this situation, there had been discussions between officers and now conclusions are made lately that in a month's time flights will operate. Basically, in 2 weeks Customs will start it seems (Government's message), and automatically international flights would start working in another 2 weeks (assumption).

In one month - Madurai to Colombo will be operated by Srilanka Airlines, Air India Express; Madurai To Dubai will be operated by Air Arabia; Madurai to Singapore will be operated by Air Asia. Air Lanka will operate from Colombo to Europe and America.
Air Lanka has decided to provide flights from Colombo to all across the world, which means flights are connected from Madurai to all around the world!!

There are numerous advantages of Madurai International Airport and flights -
Every time, people from Southern districts have to go to Chennai to fly out of the country. Now, it is a great step that people from Southern districts can fly from Madurai to anywhere in the world, directly from Madurai.

As on date - people travelling from Chennai to all south asian countries are most of them are from southern districts of Tamil Nadu. Almost 70% are from Madurai and southern districts. With the Madurai international airport, people can directly fly to and fro Madurai to anywhere in the world.

Also, all the tourists from Tamil Nadu can go from Madurai directly to anywhere in the world - which helps them with lesser travel and also lesser cost for the trip.

Also, the international tourists from Asian countries who visit Kanyakumari, Meenakshi Amman Temple, Coutrallam etc., can come to Madurai directly, instead of coming to Chennai and then coming to Madurai in different modes of transports!

Great job by the Government!!! We at Madurai247.com thank the government for Madurai's International Airport!!!! Great step and this is going to change Madurai for good! First step haan!

Madurai New International Airport Terminal Inaugurated - Ready 2010

On Sunday September 12th 2010, New International Status Airport in Madurai was ready and inaugurated.

Central Home Minister P.Chidambaram, Central Airways Minister Praful Patel and Central Fertilizers Minister M.K.Azhagiri were present in the Madurai Airport and opened the airport for further functioning.

Total expenses of the new terminal of Madurai Airport is Rs.128 Crores. Today, around 5 flights can be ported in the airport, but with the new terminal around 7 flights can be hosted and ported.

500 passengers can be engaged in the Airport with the new terminal. It is around 17,500 sq.ft area land. 6 escalators and 6 lifts are there in the new terminal. 3 Aerobridges are built, using which passengers can go directly into the flight from the terminal.

It will take couple of months for International flights to function in the new airport terminal in Madurai Airport.

It is a great plus for Madurai, its business, transportation, travel business. This is a great step from the Government for Madurai and its improvement...

It has been all the time news and atlast time has come for the Madurai International Airport. Similarly, we think gradually all other important news would also come out like Madurai IT park, AIIMS like hospital etc., and much more than that.

Madurai Airport - Did you know?

Because of heavy traffic at the Madurai Airport, the Airport Authority of India has decided to hand over sixty acres of land to modernize. The AAI has decided to increase the length of the runway to 7,500 ft and install an Instrument Landing system(ILS) and Simple Approach Lightning System.

Naming Madurai Airport Issue

There is a proverb in Tamil - "Innum kalyaaname aagaliyaam, athukkulla pillaikku peru anantha narayana krishna murthy raajaa raamaa". (English Translation - The guy is not married yet, but he has named his child as anantha narayana krishna murthy raajaa raamaa).

Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy has threatened to launch an agitation if the Tamil Nadu Government further delayed its consent to name the city airport after freedom fighter Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar.

Swamy has written letter to the government, but he has not received any response yet.

My question is - the international Madurai Airport is not ready yet, but issues of NAMING has raised!

God Bless Madurai!

New Terminal in Madurai Airport: Madurai Airport Expansion

Sponsored by OruAcre.com

The Hindu quotes - "Work on the new integrated terminal building for handling 500 passengers at Madurai airport is likely to be completed by October this year."

Read more in The Hindu.

These are some of the improvements and government initiatives to improve Madurai.

Article sponsored by - Sun City Real Estate Agency.

Lands near Madurai Airport in high demand

Sponsored by OruAcre.com

As you know already, lands near Madurai IT park were on high demand recently and still it is.

There is always some kind of improvement and advancement news in and around Madurai anytime. Previously it was around IT park, then the new medical center proposed in Austinpatti madurai and now the new airport terminal in Madurai Airport.

Even if anything is not going to be up in few days, all the news proposed are eventually going to happen in Madurai, pragmatically. Where would the developments go in Tamil Nadu - it has to come to cities like Madurai. What was the situation 10-15 years back for Bangalore and Hyderabad is the situation for Madurai today!

It would be a smart move to purchase lands even in small quantities in these areas around the Madurai Airport area. Why not give it a shot?

Sun City Real Estate Agency has come up with a land - perfectly arranged and split into plots. Here is the related post and the plot map available for you to view. Click here for the plot map and related post.

Madurai Airport gets 610 acres free from Tamil Nadu Government

The Tamil Nadu Government has passed an order for providing 610 acres of land free of cost to the Madurai Airport, according to airport sources.

The Airports Authority of India had earlier requested the State Government for the land to carry out expansion. In the Rs 500 crore expansion plan, fire station, runway expansion and quality improvement works have been completed at a cost of Rs 75 crore till now. The new terminal building was coming up at a cost of Rs 130 crore.

Read more here

International Terminal in Madurai Airport Function: A Recap

The Tamil Nadu government had given administrative sanction to acquire 614.33 acres of land to expand the Madurai airport, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said, laying the foundation stone for a terminal building here on Saturday.

By March 2009, we would have the first international flight from this new terminal, he added. - Bureau Report

Chief minister M Karunanidhi on Saturday April 26th 2008 laid the foundation stone for a new integrated terminal building at the Madurai airport, a facility that would handle 500 passengers at a time.

Airport officials said the integrated terminal building would be ready by March 2009. Constructed at a cost of Rs 130 crore, it would have state-of-the-art facilities and amenities, including aerobridges, flight information display system and centralised air-conditioning.

The present terminal has the capacity to handle only 200 passengers.

Karunanidhi said all airports in the state would be pieces of architectural excellence and match world class airports.

Karunanidhi also laid the foundation stones for IT parks developed by Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu at Ilandaikulam and Vadapalanji in Madurai.

Madurai Airport Design: Madurai Airport Expansion

Sponsored by OruAcre.com

Sponsored by Sun City - Real Estate Agent, Madurai

The New airport in Madurai is going to be a 17,536-square metre building, to be constructed at a cost of Rs. 88 crore. It will have advanced features. The new facility has been designed to cater to 500 passengers. It has been proposed to have four aero-bridges, though initially only two will come up. Seven glass passenger lifts, five escalators and online baggage handling systems would make it a world class airport

This is designed by Mott Macdonald, the firm which also designed the New Delhi airport and they are experts in providing designs for private and public sector infrastructures worldwide.

Here are a few pictures, which I got by email.










Sourced from forwarded emails - Not Validated for truth!
Chronicles of Madurai

Official and Latest News on Madurai IT Park: Madurai Tidel Park: Madurai Airport - Foundation Stone for New Terminal Building in Madurai Airport

Sponsored by OruAcre.com

Official and Latest News on Madurai IT Park: Madurai Tidel Park: Madurai Airport - Foundation Stone for New Terminal Building in Madurai Airport

Sponsored by Sun City - Real Estate Agent, Madurai

On the evening of 26th of April, Chief Minister Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi is laying a foundation for three important things -

1) Airport Expansion to International Terms - New Terminal Foundation.
2) Madurai Tidel Park in Madurai North - near Mattuthavani
3) Madurai IT Park in Madurai South

This function is scheduled to happen this weekend on 26th of April in the Madurai Airport.

We are very glad about the whole news and it is going to change everything in Madurai to a very new positive level.

Tamil Nadu (CM) Chief Minister M Karunanidhi will lay the foundation stone for a new Integrated Terminal Building at Madurai Airport on April 26.

Official sources said as part of the modernization of the Madurai Airport, the Integrated Terminal Building which could handle 500 passengers at a time would come up.

Mr Karunanidhi will also lay the foundation stones for the much awaited Madurai North Ilandhaikulam Information Technology Park and Madurai South Vadapalanji Information Technology Park at a function to be held at the Madurai Airport on the same day.

Union Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T R Baalu and Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel would also participate, the news sources added.