Flight operations from the flood-hit international airport here, which was rendered non functional for over a week, will resume from August 29 instead of August 26 as announced earlier. The decision to extend the date was taken at a meeting at Cochin International Airport Limited here, where most stakeholders, including airlines and ground handling agencies, expressed concern over mobilising manpower by that date, a CIAL spokesperson said. The meeting, held to review damage control activities,was informed that 90 per cent of staff have been affected by the floods and are out of station. Nearby hotels, restaurants and eateries still remain closed.

"As central Kerala was yet to recover from post-flood trauma, it is a daunting task to arrange local commutation, logistics of catering items, which will cause a cascading effect on passengers. In view of these apprehensions, CIAL decided to extend the date of resuming operations for three more days.We will be starting all operations at 2 PM on August 29", the spokesperson said in a release here. CIAL, among the busiest in the country, suffered an estimated loss of over Rs 220 crore due to the floods and was rendered non-functional since August 14.