Madurai International Airport (IXM)
Disclaimer : It's a Fanpage for Madurai International Airport (IXM) and not Official one.
Entire Southern Tamilnadu is longing for decades to have a full-fledged International airport at Madurai, upon which the economic & Industrial development of the region comprising 10 districts, almost one-third of the state depends.Our united voice in the recent times got our airport, the Customs tag i.e an airport with limited International connections.But,Madurai,one of the few living Civilisations in the world, with amazing tourism potential that woes maximum number of foriegners per day, next to state's capital Chennai and its hinterland with 9 districts, having huge number of NRI's settled in various nations all over the world deserves a Full-fledged International airport.
Our aim in creation of this page in this powerful social media is to gather :
* Our region NRI's who long to land directly at their hometown-Madurai,
* Business people who wants their airport with all possible connections & Cargo facilities and
* Madurai well-wishers who love to see their hometown in the global map.
* To know where the actual demand is !
* To find out where our Madurai airport lacks !
* To raise our demands with strong united voice !
Madurai Airport (IATA: IXM, ICAO: VOMD)
is a Customs Airport serving Madurai and Southern districts, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India.The airport is located about 12 km (7.5 mi) from the Madurai railway junction. The airport was established in 1957.
A 17,600 Sq.m New Integrated terminal building was inaugurated recently which is the second largest terminal in Tamilnadu,next to Chennai.
Seating Capacity : 250 + 250
Check-In Counters : 27 + 9
Immigration Counters : 20
Baggage Conveyors : 3 + 1
CISF staff Strength : 105+
Aero-bridges : 3
Apron : 6
Parking Lot : 7
Parellel Taxiway : 2
Runway : 7500 ft.
ILS : Available
Firestation : 5 firefighters including 3 Brand New ROSEN BAUER highly advanced Firefighters
Fuel-stations : Reliance & IOCL tanks
Cargo/Frieght handling : Available.
Madurai airport has a strong Domestic network and handles 45,000+ passengers per month on an average. The temple city is directly connected to Major Indian Metros such as
* Chennai
* Mumbai
* New Delhi
* Hyderabad
Already Proven Madurai-Bangalore route, which was operated as 2x daily by Kingfisher till the airline's demise, is still vacant with good demand..In mean-time, Spicejet and Jet airways launched Madurai-Bangalore flights in a lean season and withdrawn without giving enough time for the route to get matured.
Reasonable demand is there for other domestic destinations like Kolkatta, Tirupati and Ahmedabad.
In a recent survey by Malaysian aviation firm, Chennai-Madurai-Chennai is found to be the No.1 domestic route out of Chennai airport with close to 1300 seats offered by Spicejet, Jet airways and Air India one-way, per day. It's also one of the high-potent route in South India, with still having room to accomodate new flights in this sector..An early morning (5:30-6:30) MAA-IXM and a late night (22:00-23:00) IXM-MAA, with high demands is still to be experimented.
Few newly proposed Low-cost Carriers like
* Air Costa
* Air Asia India
* Air Pegasus have plans for connecting Madurai domestically on their start-up.
On International-side, Madurai has direct flights only to Srilankan Capital Colombo operated by :
* Spicejet - daily with a 78-seater Q400
* Mihin Lanka - 4x weekly with a 180-seater A-320..Finding huge potential here, Mihin lanka has decided to make Madurai operations daily.
* Spicejet has obtained Madurai-Singapore, Madurai-Dubai & Madurai-Kuala lampur rights and is yet to launch the much-expected flights. Both of the flights are expected to be in Madurai Skies with much fanfare within this year-end.
* Air Asia is planning Kaula lampur-Madurai direct flights to be launched within this year end..This has been confirmed by Air Asia CEO Mr.Tony Fernandes in his tweet after meeting Minister Mr.Sudharshana Nachiappan.
* Silk air wanted to fly Madurai and sought the addition of Madurai as Point-of-Call in their Bilateral Air Service Agreements but unfortunately, their request was rejected by Indian government, vanishing our dreams of having the first Premium airline in Madurai.
* Air Arabia is very much keen to operate direct Sharjah-Madurai Flights and continously knocking the doors of Indian govt. for the past 1 year..However, their request to increase their number of seats & add Madurai as a Point of Call in their Bilateral agreements is yet to be decided by Indian govt, which is expected to happen in next scheduled Bilateral meet with UAE nations.
* Newly proposed airline promoted by US-based N-Air International is interested to launch Madurai - Fujairah (near Ras-al-kaimah)
Apart from these, there is a huge demand from Madurai hinterland seeking direct flights from Madurai to various Middle-east Countries like :
* Abu dhabhi
* Riyadh and
* Muscat
Madurai being a Medical Tourism hot-spot, a direct Madurai-Male flight is also felt as a need among many Maldivians and Indian tourists.
INTERNATIONAL AIR-CARGO:
In order to boost export from Madurai and its surrounding districts, the Department of Revenue under the Union Ministry of Finance has issued a notification dated 28 May 2013 permitting Madurai airport to handle International air-cargo.
Administrators :
1. Mahendra varman (Madurai Gilli in SSC/AAM Forums)
2. Sundar Megaraj (sundar_amu in SSC / sundar in AAM Forum)
3. Saravana Kumaran (madurakarenda in SSC/AAM Forums)
4. Mohamed Mustafa (Malaysia Mustafa in SSC/AAM Forums)
Gathered under an Online group "All About Madurai" with Passion on Madurai as our common interest, We are voluntarily spending our time and energy in developments of our Madurai. As a part of it, We're in close bond with Madurai Aviation Industry people, Trade bodies, Our elected representatives etc. through them, We're trying to fulfill our dreams of making Madurai, a Full-fledged International airport in South.
You can join our group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/allaboutmadurai/
We 're filing frequent RTI's (Right to Information act) to know the facts, suggesting the concerned people on changes we need here and suggesting airlines, with supportive data to connect Madurai with possible destinations.
Friends can contact the administrators for any kind of help like Complaints, Suggestions, Need of Informations etc..You can mail us at :
1. sundar@templecitytech.com
2. mahemsmch@yahoo.in
3. sscmadurakarenda@gmail.com
NOTE : Our only intention in creation of this page is to gather Madurai airport well-wishers and create them the awareness of happenings around Madurai airport..Whenever we find a news, we keep you updated through this page..However, Kindly decide on your ticket bookings based on Official confirmation news from the respective airlines..We do not hold any responsibility for any inconveniences/ loss caused.
Kindly refer the page to your friends, Inform them when Madurai gets any new flights and help them land in their home-town with Million dollar Smiles and Satisfaction. Stay tuned for more updates !!
