To bring down airfares and help NoRKs in Gulf
Air India (AI) and its low cost carrier Air
India Express (AIE) will operate 56 more flights from Thiruvananthapuram,
Kochi, Kozhikode and Mangalore airports to the Middle East from Saturday.
This is to bring down the airfares that had gone
up and to restore the services that were curtailed during the 58-day strike by
pilots of the national carrier owing allegiance to the Indian Pilot’s Guild.
The move was aimed at clearing the rush of the
Non-resident Keralites working in the Middle East and planning to come home
during Ramzan and Onam, an AI spokesman told The Hindu .
Apart from the additional flights, the
authorities were working on crew and route management schedules so that the
flight schedules in Kerala and Mangalore were restored to the ‘pre-strike’
period by September 21, he said.
The move was expected to drastically bring down
the airfares that had been hiked by private and foreign carriers from Middle
East to Kerala. Of the 56 additional flights, 50 would be operated by AIE.
The no-frills airline’s additional flight in the
Thiruvananthapuram- Dubai- Thiruvananthapuram sector would be on August 8, 15
and 13. In the Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram sector, it would
be on all Saturdays from August 4 to September 15, and in the
Thiruvananthapuram-Abudhabi-Thiruvananthapuram sector, it would be on August
30, the spokesman said.
From Kochi
The Kochi-Dubai-Kochi additional flights of the
AIE would be on August 8, 15 and September 9, the Kochi-Abudhabi-Kochi flight
on August 26, and the Kochi-Dubai-Kochi flight on August 18, he added.
From Kozhikode
In the Kozhikode-Dubai-Kozhikode sector, the AIE
flights would be on August 18, 25, September 1, 8 and 14.
The flights in the Kozhikode-Doha-Kozhikode
sector would be on August 26, September 2 and 9, in the Kozhikode-Kochi-Kuwait-
Kochi- Kozhikode on September 5, and in the Kozhikode-Abudhabi-Kozhikode sector
on August 16.
From Mangalore
The Mangalore-Kozhikode-Abudhabi-Mangalore
additional flight of Air India Express would be on August 31 and the
Mangalore-Kozhikode-Dubai-Mangalore flight on September 7.
As the airline faces shortage of crew, the AIE
would not operate additional flights from Kerala to Dammam in Saudi Arabia.
To overcome this and to cater to the high demand
for seats from Kerala to Dammam, the budget airline would operate flights in
the Mumbai-Dammam-Mumbai sector on all Tuesdays and Fridays from August 21 to
September 14, the spokesman said.
The airline would offer connections from
Thiruvananthapuram, he added. AIE would also operate additional flights every
Thursday till September 13 in the Chennai-Dubai-Chennai sector.
The AI would operate flights in the
Kochi-Riyadh-Kochi sector on Wednesday and Friday and in the Kozhikode-Riyadh-Kozhikode
sector on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday from August 9. In addition to this, the
airline had commenced flights from Delhi to Seoul, Hong Kong, Osaka and Newark.
Connection flights had been provided from
Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi for these international fights, the spokesman
said.
More flights of the national carrier were on the
offing and flight to Melbourne would be kicked off with the launch of the Dream
liner, he added.
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