Mangaluru: The year-end hasn’t brought good tidings for airlines operating from Mangaluru International Airport. From December 31, the runway length has been reduced by 120 metres. Airport authorities have alerted pilots about the shortened runway due to insufficient Runway End Safety Areas (RESA) at both ends.

It means that of the 2,450m of runway available, only 2,330m will be available for safety purposes. It will not affect passengers per se, but there will be a load penalty on airlines, especially international airlines carrying cargo, which will have to be reduced.

A source aware of this development told  it’s not a good development for cargo operations as airlines will have to reduce at least 2,000 tonnes of cargo to meet the new safety requirement
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The change is as per directions of the Director-General of Civil Aviation to improve RESA. Though DGCA has granted approval for extending by 60m on both ends of the runway, work has been held up as MIA is not getting the required land.

The cargo load from MIA had increased after the Qatar crisis, which pushed up the demand for veggies from the coast and elsewhere in Karnataka. Qatar, facing a major diplomatic crisis, has been forced to airlift vegetables from MIA. According to data available with , since June MIA has been airlifting about 50 tonnes of daily essentials every month, which contain 30 types of vegetables and five types of fruits.

Apart from Qatar, essentials are supplied to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. Every month, on an average, 220 tonnes of such essentials are flown to these Gulf Cooperation Council countries and it’s increasing every year.

MIA director V V Rao confirmed that the notice has been issued and it’s a temporary issue.

“The passenger load will remain the same, but the amount of cargo will have to be reduced to meet safety requirements. We have alternative plans for expansion on both ends. We have asked the state government for land. The moment we get the land, expansion work will start,” he said, pointing out that the Airports Authority of India chairman had met with the chief secretary recently about it. “This is not only for MIA. Such notices have been issued at Calicut and Kannur airports, which is why the latter could not start operations,” added Rao.

A source said the local administration has not been proactive. “What is 3-4 acres when AAI wants to purchase land at market rates? It can be done within a week. Such dawdling hinders development, especially cargo movement, when it is seeing an upward trend,” the source rued.