Air India Express flights between Bahrain and Kerala will not be affected by the airline's recent decision to cancel operations on several Middle East-Kerala routes.
Country Manager for Bahrain and Jordan Meenakshi Mallik confirmed in comments to Bahrain Tribune yesterday that the flights from Bahrain will continue to operate as usual.
"Flights to and from Bahrain to Kerala will not be affected as they are high revenue flights," Mallik stated.
Air India currently operates 13 flights per week from Bahrain to India, with 10 of these routes servicing cities in Kerala, and three more flying to Mangalore in Karnataka.
Reports said yesterday that the airline has cancelled flights from three airports in Kerala to various destinations in the Middle East due to crew shortages.
An Air India spokesperson was quoted as saying that fights will be cancelled as of next week and will resume at the end of October.
"Around 203 flights (73 from Kozhikode, 74 from Thiruvananthapuram and 56 from Kochi) stand cancelled," the official stated.
The destinations of the cancelled flights include Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat and Kuwait.
E.M. Najeeb, president of the Confederation of Kerala Tourism Industry, expressed shock at the manner in which Air India cancelled the flights.
"They should not have booked passengers. Didn't they know of a shortage of cabin crew," he stated.
Last month, Air India Express announced that it was suspending its flights from Bahrain to Mumbai until October 30. The airline said in a statement that the flight cancellations were due to "operational reasons".
The airline added that all passengers booked on the cancelled flights had been offered the chance to refund their tickets or re-book once the flights resumed.
By Marija Grech
© Bahrain Tribune 2010
