More flights, flyers on menu as Kol airport celebrates 100th b’day

Kolkata: Kolkata airport’s passenger handling capacity is set to increase by 2 million per annum in the next 18 months and flight handling capacity will increase to 45 flights per hour from the existing 35 as the airport gears up to celebrate its centenary year.The first flight that had landed at the airport was in 1924 and the airport plans to mark the centenary year with significant infrastructure developments to suit the need of the hour rather than just lofty celebrations. Officials said blueprint for an even bigger capacity hike will also be finalized by the start of the centenary year.Speaking to TOI, an official said a tender for the Rs 130 crore work on expanding the integrated terminal building capacity from 26 million passengers a year to 28 million has already been floated and the work will start early next year. “We have finalised the modular expansion of 4,000 sq m (43,000 sq ft) in the existing terminal. Work is expected to commence early next year,” the official said.Once complete, space in the boarding or security hold area post frisking and hand luggage scan will increase. The number of bus departure gates will also increase.Work on increasing the airport’s flight handling capacity has already been completed and is scheduled to be commissioned on December 28. Four new taxiways, including one for aircraft to roll into the primary runway for take-off and three others to quickly exit the runway after landing will help increase the airport’s flight handling capacity from 35 an hour at present to 45 flights.But beyond this, the airport hopes to finalise the plans for a much bigger two-phase capacity expansion by the next financial year. First, a new terminal will come up with a capacity of 11 million passengers a year, followed by another terminal with a capacity of 22 million passengers a year. Once complete, the overall capacity of the airport terminals will be 61 million passengers per annum.“Kolkata airport turning 100 is a momentous occasion and we plan to upgrade the airport so that it can serve for many more years to come,” the airport official said.The airport in Dum Dum that started operations in 1924 is one of the oldest in operation in the country. The Calcutta Aerodrome, as it was known then, was conceived a year earlier in 1923. The first flight landed on the fair weather runway in 1924. The first British Royal Air Force round-the-world Dakota-3 flight landed here in 1924. KLM became the first commercial airline to start operations in Calcutta along the Amsterdam (The Netherlands) to Batavia (Jakarta) route.However, the first planes that had taken to the sky were not at the airport but at Tollygunge Club. From its golf course, a Blériot monoplane flown by the Belgian Jules Tyck and a Farman biplane flown by fellow Belgian aviator Baron Pierre de Caters had taken off on November 10, 1912, barely seven years after the Wright brothers first flew a motor-operated plane.In February 1929, Bengal Governor Sir Stanley Jackson opened the Bengal Flying Club at the aerodrome. In 1930, an all-weather runway was developed and Air Orient that operated on the Paris-Saigon route and Imperial Airways that flew from London to Australia stopped at Kolkata.According to the Kolkata Customs, Kolkata airport was the country’s leading airport till 1969, both in terms of aircraft movement and passenger traffic.