Gulf meltdown mirrors in dipping air links to Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: It may still be too early to make a call on how deep the Gulf meltdown is, but if airline traffic statistics are a pointer, the pain is beginning to show.
Air India Express (AIE) has decided to drop one of its weekly flights from Kochi to Dubai from this week, and more such measures are in the pipeline. An Air India official confirmed to ET that three more flights from Kochi to Sharjah would be scrapped from next week.
AIE has been a favourite with Gulf-bound passengers from Kerala for the attractive fares, connectivity and frequency of operations.
Kozhikode has the most number of AIE flights out of Kerala, with 46 weekly flights, followed by Kochi, which has 37 per week and Thiruvananthapuram with 24 flights per week. While Kochi’s weekly flights will drop to 33, there will be no scrapping of AIE flights from Kozhikode or Thiruvananthapuram, officials said.
Amidst the gloom, there is also the positive development of AIE having recently launched a flight from here to Salalah, which followed another new flight to Kuwait a month earlier.
Airline industry officials say that loads have been particularly affected in the Dubai sector, which has led to a decline in load factors in flights to Dubai and Sharjah, while passenger traffic to cities in Saudi Arabia continued to be healthy.
11/03/09 Joe A Scaria/Economic Times

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Categories: Foreign Mar 2009, NACIL Mar 2009