Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah flight to be withdrawn

TIRUCHI: The Chennai-Tiruchi-Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah flight of the Air India is likely to be withdrawn by the end of this month on account of route rationalisation by the airline, evoking protests from the travel trade and travellers from the city.

According to sources, the daily service on the route is to be withdrawn apparently owing to the poor load factor on the Tiruchi-Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchi-Sharjah segments.

Though the flights on the sector had been one of the successful services of Air India in the past, it had suffered a fall in load factor of late following the introduction of the Air India Express service to Dubai, the sources said.

However, representatives of the travel industry claim that the flight’s overall load factor on the Chennai-Sharjah and Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah segments was well over 70 per cent, meeting the operational costs of the flights.

The fall in load factor on the Tiruchi-Sharjah segment was also on account of the relatively higher fares on the sector, in comparison to the fares from Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

Travel industry representatives suggest that the service be operated under Air India Express banner so as to attract more passengers through the low cost/no-frills service.

The flights could be extended up to Kuwait, to make it viable, they said.

Taking cognisance of the move, Tiruchi Member of Parliament P.Kumar has appealed to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to prevail upon Air India against withdrawing the service.

Highest growth


In a representation to the Minister, Mr.Kumar pointed out that the Tiruchi Airport had registered the highest growth in terms of passenger traffic among the Indian airports during 2008-09.

The airport was serving people from a large number of central and southern districts and the Sharjah service from Tiruchi had widely benefited travellers of the region. Any curtailment of service would affect the tempo of growth.

There was a high market potential for services to Sharjah and Kuwait from Tiruchi. But unfortunately, the Kuwait service was also withdrawn by the national carrier last year.

The Sharjah service should be retained and flights to Kuwait should also be restored.

This can be done by extend the flights to Sharjah to Kuwait as the routes had good potential for cargo movement also.

Previously, Kuwait flights had carried up to two tonnes of cargo, he said and sought the Minister’s intervention in the matter to ensure that air services from Tiruchi were not curtailed.