Agatti Airport and its some basic details

 The airstrip was constructed during 1987−88 for operation of Dornier 228 type of aircraft and was inaugurated on 16 April 1988. Initially, the terminal was housed in a small temporary structure. Construction of the terminal building, Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower and related structures commenced in 2006. However, the construction of the terminal building was stopped midway due to the proposed extension of runway.After the works completed, Air India Regional began services with ATR-42 aircraft on 24 September 2010 connecting Agatti with Kochi. The resurfacing of the runway was completed in November 2010. The airline was renamed later as Alliance Air, which now operates its ATR-72 aircraft from the airport to Bangalore and Kochi.

In 2013, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) received environmental clearance to extend the runway by constructing a 1,500-feet-long bridge on stilts over the sea. The extension is to be built at a cost of Rs 3 billion and will allow aircraft like the ATR-72 to be operated without any payload restrictions. AAI originally planned to construct a bridge between Agatti and the neighbouring uninhabited Kalpati Island to make the runway long enough to handle an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737. However, this plan was rejected on environmental grounds as the bridge would have gone through a turtle colony and Kalpati island would need to be leveled to accommodate the extended runway.

The original proposal for the airport outlined an estimated cost of ₹1 billion (US$13 million) and an expected date of commission in 1997. Approval was granted in May 1993. The funding was envisaged to be from interest-free loans from non-resident Indians working abroad, donations from industrial undertakings, exporters, cooperative societies and loans from the state government. A body called the Cochin International Airport Society, under the chairmanship of the chief minister of Kerala K. Karunakaran, was registered in July 1993 to execute the project. To better fund mobilisation, as well as administrative convenience, a public limited company under the name Cochin International Airport Ltd. (CIAL) was registered in March 1994 with an authorised capital of ₹900 million (US$11 million).