Tiruchi lacks strong lobby for bringing in more flights

Tiruchi: The absence of a strong lobby, both political and from the industry, in the city to press for the introduction of flights to more destinations from Tiruchi, especially by the national carrier has been a cause for concern for the travel trade.
Even as more and more private airlines are eyeing the city for its business potential, the crew shortage faced by Air India Express has raised a question mark on the national carrier's plans to expand its operations from the city.
The “crew problem” has already forced the airline to cancel its flights to Kuala Lumpur from the city on November 4 and 6.
The airline has already notified the cancellation of the flights on the two days, along with the connecting service on Tiruchi-Chennai-Singapore route.
According to sources, the cancellation comes in the wake of the exodus of pilots from the airline to various private airlines and the recent Director General of Civil Aviation regulation increasing the mandatory rest period for pilots operating on night flights.
Given the serious shortage of pilots with nearly 25 to 30 per cent of the pilots of the airline reported to have resigned in the recent past, the airline may curtail the service further this month, it was feared.
However, airline sources said no decision in this regard has been taken as yet.
At a time when the travel trade was expecting more flights to destinations, the cancellation of the services does not augur well for the airline.
02/11/11 S Ganesan/The Hindu

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Categories: airports Nov 2011