Kolkata Airport
| Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport নেতাজি সুভাষচন্দ্র বসু আন্তর্জাতিক বিমানবন্দর |
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| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | VECC |
| IATA code | CCU |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 5 m (16 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 18 km north of Kolkata |
| Local transport | Buses, as well as app cabs and taxis |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1924 |
| operator | Airports Authority of India |
| Terminals | 2 |
| Passengers | 12,056,258 (2015) |
| Air freight | 136,941 t (2015) |
| Flight movements |
100,544 (2015) |
| Runways | |
| 01R / 19L | 3627 m × 46 m asphalt |
| 01L / 19R | 2399 m × 46 m asphalt |
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport ( IATA code : CCU , Bengali নেতাজি সুভাষচন্দ্র বসু আন্তর্জাতিক বিমানবন্দর ) is the name of the airport in Calcutta ( Calcutta English until 2001). It is located in Dum Dum , a northern suburb of Kolkata (about 18 kilometers from the city center). The civil airport was originally known as Dum Dum International Airport , but it was renamed in early 1995 in honor of Bengali patriot Subhash Chandra Bose .
With an area of 1,000 hectares, Kolkata Airport is the largest air traffic hub in the east of the country and one of two international airports in West Bengal - the other is Bagdogra . With almost 20 million passengers in the 2017–18 financial year, the airport is India's fifth largest airport in terms of passenger volume after Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.
The airport is a major hub for flights to northeast India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, and Southeast Asia. In 2014 and 2015, Kolkata Airport was awarded the title Best Improved Airport in the Asia-Pacific region by the Airport Council International.
Today, apart from a few international connections, mainly domestic flights start here. There are two parallel runways, only one of which is used permanently for take-offs and landings. The airport consists of three terminals: National, International and Freight.
The airport was renovated in 2000 and is therefore one of the best preserved in India at the moment. It is connected to the Kolkata metro line .
History of the airport
Calcutta Airport traditionally served as a strategic stopover on the flight route from Europe to Indochina and Australia.
Many groundbreaking flights passed through the airport, including Amelia Earhart's in 1937. In 1924, KLM began scheduled stops in Calcutta on the Amsterdam-Batavia (Jakarta) route. That same year, a Royal Air Force aircraft landed in Calcutta as part of the first air force expedition around the world.
The airport began as an open-air area next to the Royal Artillery in Dum Dum. Sir Stanley Jackson, Governor of Bengal, opened the Bengal Flying Club at Calcutta Airfield in February 1929. In 1930 the airfield was prepared for year-round use and other airlines began using the airport. Air Orient began with scheduled stopovers on a Paris-Saigon route, and Imperial Airways began flights from London to Australia via Calcutta in 1933. This started a trend that drew many airlines to Calcutta Airport.
Calcutta played an important role in World War II. In 1942, the 7th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces flew B-24 Liberator bombers from the airport on combat missions over Burma. The airfield was used as a cargo airport for the Air Transport Command and as a communications center for the Tenth Air Force.
After the Second World War, passenger traffic grew. Calcutta became the destination of the world's first jet-powered passenger jet, the de Havilland Comet, on a route operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) to London. In addition, Indian Airlines introduced the first Indian domestic jet service with Caravelle jets on the Calcutta-Delhi route in 1964.
Between the 1940s and 1960s, the airport was served by several major airlines, including Aeroflot, Air France, Alitalia, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Philippine Airlines, KLM, Pan Am, Lufthansa, Swissair and SAS, making it one of the busiest airports Asia.
Due to the introduction of long-haul aircraft and the poor political climate in Calcutta in the 1960s, several airlines shut down their connections to the airport. The 1971 Liberation War in Bangladesh resulted in a sharp rise in refugees and disease in Calcutta, causing more airlines to suspend their flights to the city. In 1975 the airport opened its first own cargo terminal in India.
Calcutta Airport saw new growth in the 1990s when new airlines such as Jet Airways and Air Sahara were formed in the Indian aviation industry. A new domestic terminal opened in 1995 and the airport was renamed in honor of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. In 2000 a new international arrival hall was opened.
In 2013 a new "Integrated Terminal" (locally also called T2) was opened. This closed the old terminals of the airport. From 2013 only the new terminal will be used. Reception areas 1 to 3 are used for local destinations. Areas 4 and 5 are used for international destinations.
The airport is working on renovating the old terminals and opening them again soon. There are also plans for a new terminal and an ATC tower.
Airlines
There are flights to national as well as international destinations mainly from Indian, but also from some foreign airlines.
Connection with the city
The airport has a bus station, from which it is possible to reach several destinations inside and outside Calcutta. Direct buses to Howrah Central Station , as well as to the other main areas of the city, can be reached from here.
The Kolkata Metro is also building a subway station under the airport. This means that the airport can be reached directly from Howrah Central Station in the coming years.
Incidents
- On October 20, 1946, an Avro York C.1 of the Royal Air Force ( aircraft registration number MW208 ) failed in engine number 2 when taking off from Calcutta-Dum Dum Airport. The machine could no longer climb and crashed. Of the 15 occupants, 3 passengers were killed.
- On November 20, 1950, a Handley Page Halifax freighter of the British Eagle Aviation (G-AIAP) crashed after taking off from Dum Dum Airport. Two of the six crew members were killed.
- On May 2, 1953, six minutes after taking off from Calcutta airport, a De Havilland Comet 1 (G-ALYV) of the BOAC broke during a climb during a heavy monsoon rain 32 kilometers northwest of the take-off airport. All 43 people on board died. The total loss of the G-ALYV was explained by bad weather conditions.
- On July 25, 1953, a De Havilland Comet 1 of the BOAC (G-ALYR) got at Calcutta airport while rolling on unpaved ground, with the right chassis being pushed up through the wing, which led to a total write-off . The trigger was a bad design of the Comet's headlights. The switches for the right and left landing lights had to be switched on and off alternately to prevent the lamps from melting. The switches were behind the seat of the captain, who had to let go of the nose wheel steering to operate them. All 42 people on board were uninjured.
- On June 12, 1968 was Boeing 707-321C of Pan American World Airways (N798PA) at the airport Kolkata in poor visibility about flown one kilometer before the runway threshold into the ground (CFIT, controlled flight into terrain ). 6 of the 63 occupants were killed in the accident.
Web links
- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport homepage (English)
- Calcutta Airport of Sardar Vallabhai Patel International Airport (English)
- Airport Data (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c ACI ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ accident report Avro York MW208 , Aviation Safety Network (English) retrieved on October 27 of 2019.
- ↑ britisheagle.net: G-AIAP, Handley Page 61 Halifax 8, c / n 1354
- ↑ Air-Britain Aviation World (English), September 2016 p. 110.
- ↑ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty compendium (English), March 1995, pp. 95/25.
- ^ Accident report Comet 1 G-ALYV , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 20, 2017.
- ^ Accident report Comet 1 G-ALYR , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 11, 2017.
- ↑ Accident Report B-707 N798PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
