Passengers who arrived at the Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala for an 8.45 am Air India Express flight to Sharjah early Saturday morning received a rude shock. They were told the flight had been cancelled on the instructions of the civil aviation ministry.
One passenger, Biju, said Air India officials washed their hands off the affair, saying the civil aviation ministry was responsible for the cancellation.
“They asked us to take up the issue with the ministry when we confronted them,” added the passenger.
Although Air India officers later promised to accommodate 40 passengers on the evening flight to Sharjah scheduled for 7.30 pm, they failed to do so, leading to more confusion.
Association of Travel Agents’ president, K.V. Muraleedharan alleged the aircraft had been diverted to Uttar Pradesh to ferry Haj pilgrims from the Union civil aviation minister’s constituency.
But Member of Parliament, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, who called civil aviation minister, Ajit Singh to inform him about the cancellation of the AI flight, said he had promised to look into it immediately and make other arrangements to fly the stranded passengers to Sharjah.
Union minister of overseas Indian affairs, Vayalar Ravi too promised to bring the sudden cancellation of the AI flight to the notice of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Minister K.C. Joseph said Air India’s shabby treatment of passengers from the state would
be brought to the Centre’s notice.
be brought to the Centre’s notice.
Air India lands NRKs in soup
Dealing a deadly blow to air passengers from Kerala, the Air India and Air India Express are continuing with the cancellation of their flights from the state and diverting them to Uttar Pradesh on the orders of Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajith Singh, to carry Haj pilgrims from there.
Since September 17, the national airliner and its arm have cancelled two dozen schedules to the Gulf alone.
In March when the pilots started their strike, the two airliners had to cancel over 160 schedules almost every month.
“From the time of the pilots’ strike, the two airliners had to cancel almost 168 schedules per month. The passengers from the state are its major source of revenue. Yet it has let down the people of Kerala,” said Paulose K. Mathew, chairman, Kerala Region of Travel Agents Federation of India.
The schedules cancelled since September 17 are the Trivandrum-Sharjah weekly twice, Trivandrum-Dubai weekly thrice, Kozhikode-Kochi-Kuwait weekly once, Kozhikode-Dammam weekly thrice flights of Air India Express and the Air India’s jumbo Kochi-Riyadh weekly twice flight that can carry 433 passengers. Air India officials are at a loss to explain the situation to the affected passengers.
Meanwhile, minister for Non Resident Keralites Affairs Department (NORKA), K.C. Joseph said that Air India had been ignoring Kerala and alleged that Ajit Singh had regional considerations in diverting the flights.
KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala sent a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to urgently intervene in the issue.
Non-Resident Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi, protesting the cancellations, said that the Haj services should be conducted without causing hardships to Keralites.
Sashi Tharoor, MP, said that he would ask Air India to urgently resolve the impasse.
‘PM should intervene’
Chief minister Oommen Chandy has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene to stop the frequent cancellation of the Air India flights from Kerala to Gulf.
He said in a statement here on Saturday that the decision to increase the ticket rates to Gulf countries has also increased the travel woes of those from the State.
The PM should intervene to put in place an alternative arrangement for ensuring better travel facilities to the state, the CM said.
The latest in the series of cancellation was that of the Sharjah flight scheduled for 8.45 am on Saturday.
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