Mangalore: Airport officials blamed for Kuwait flight issue, director denies charges

Pics by John V Tauro
Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, 6 May 2014: The expiry of lease on aircrafts borrowed by Air India Express (AIE) has hit its operation from Mangalore International Airport. All the flights on Kuwait-Mangalore-Kozhikode sector were stalled since March 2014.
 
The airport was upgraded to international status conceding to the demands of those who frequently fly to Gulf C-operation Council (GCC countries) such as Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Kuwait-Mangalore-Kozhikode route had in fact minimized flying time to 4 hours from 12-13 hours. The cancellation of the flight has forced the passengers to fly from Mumbai as before.
 
Addressing a press meet here on Monday May 5, KPCC general secretary Ivan D’Souza said that there had been an undue delay in extending the airport runway and that a lobby of Kerala officials was hand in gloves with the civil aviation department in cancellation of AIE flight form Mangalore-Kuwait. Blaming the airport officials for both the issues, D’Souza said the cargo terminal which was supposed to do a business of at least Rs 1 lac a month was fetching only Rs 30,000 now, as AIE is not lifting the cargo as it should. He blamed the airport officials for failing to convince AIE in this regard.
 
The city businessman Robert Monteiro who is a regular traveler to GCC countries said, ‘The dedicated efforts of people who travel frequently from India to Dubai or Kuwait was instrumental in the airport’s up gradation.’ The number of flights on this route had been slowly cut down since January. AIE stopped its operation to Kuwait completely from March.

 

 
‘We have to board a flight to Mumbai domestic airport and then have to travel to another airport there to board a flight to Kuwait. This break between flights means it takes 12-13 hours to reach Kuwait,’ said Monteiro.
 
‘Airport Authority of India (AAI) has shown apathy towards this issue that has caused inconvenience to the passengers. The Kuwait commuters expressed their grievances to the airport director but no initiative has been taken till date,’ added Monteiro.
 
The airport director J T Radhakrishna, in this regard said that AIE had to stop the operation as its lease on borrowed flights had expired. ‘I spoke to CEO of AIE on the disruption of flights, and he said that a new deal would be finalized to take flights on lease in a few months. This is not the fault of airport officials as alleged by some. I have done everything possible within my power to sort out the problem,’ said Radhakrishna.
 
Further speaking on the allegations leveled by Ivan D’Souza about the delay in extending the runway, Radhakrishna said talks are underway in this regard. ‘The union minster Veerappa Moily has written a letter to the AAI that has forwarded it to infrastructure department. The letter stated that 285 acres of additional land was required to extend the runway,’ said Radhakrishna.
 
‘The loss incurred to the cargo service is because AIE is not lifting the cargo. The allegation that airport officials were responsible for the loss is baseless. At present, only Jet Air is lifting the goods, while it was expected to garner Rs 1 lac per month, the income has stayed around Rs 30,000,’ added Radhakrishna.