Tiruchirappalli International Airport 5.73

Tiruchirappalli International Airport is an international airport serving Tiruchirapalli in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is located on Tiruchirappalli-Pudukkottai National Highway 336, about 5km south of the city center. The airport is ISO 9001:2008 quality certified and was declared an international airport on 4 October 2012. It is the second largest airport in international passenger traffic after Chennai in Tamil Nadu, and Third largest in terms of total passenger traffic next to Chennai and Coimbatore. The airport covers an area of 702 acres.HistoryThis airport was established by the British during World War II and was primarily used by the British Airforce during the world wars. Warplanes were brought to the airport and taken to a workshop in Ponmalai, 2 km away for repair and maintenance. The airport was given permission for civilian operations after the war ended.The first known history of flight landing at the airport dates back to 1936 when the first airmail for Colombo from India was carried by the TATA's "Goodwill Flight", piloted by H.D. Barucha on 23 December 1936, which took off from Bombay for Colombo after stopping at Hyderabad, Madras and Trichinopoly. Commercial flights on the Bombay—Trivandrum—Tirchinopoly route was operational during 1941. After Ceylon government seeking permission to operate flights between Colombo and Trichinopoly in 1947, Indian government improved the aerodrome for full functioning and allowed flight operations to Colombo in 1948. After that Air Ceylon inaugurated a regular weekly commercial service between Colombo and Karachi on 3 December 1948, using a Dakota flight with passengers through Tiruchirappalli and Bombay.