Kerala - Kozhikode   

Air-India offering more seats now

Staff Reporter

Chamber, committee submit memorandum

KOZHIKODE: The number of seats on Air-India flights from the Karipur airport to Gulf countries has not been cut; instead, it has gone up even after the operation of Air India Express flights, Chairman and Managing Director of the airlines V. Thulsidas said here on Tuesday.

Mr. Thulsidas was speaking at an interactive meeting organised by the Malabar Chamber of Commerce and the Calicut Airport Committee.

Referring to a memorandum submitted to him by them, saying that there was an acute shortage of seats, he said that in 2004, 13 flights operated a week from the airport with 2,600 seats. This had now gone up to 18 flights a week with 3,330 seats, an increase of 28 per cent.

He said an official able to speak Malayalam had been posted to the Air-India office at the airport and she would soon take charge. The memorandum had referred to the problem of passengers not able to communicate with the officials.

Referring to another demand, he said there was a misconception that tickets for Air-India Express flights could be booked only through the Internet using credit cards. Booking could be made through travel agents also.

He said there was no case of cancellation of Air India Express flights. Efforts were also on to avoid delays in their operations.

He said that since six hectares of land was being given to Air-India free of cost by the State Government through the Airports Authority of India, it had decided to set up an aircraft maintenance and engineering unit at the Thiruvananthapuram airport. Another facility would be introduced at the Karipur airport soon. Its nature would be announced later. The demand for increasing the baggage allowance in Air India Express flights from here to the Gulf countries and passenger check-in at the airline's city office could not be entertained.

P.V. Chandran, chairman of the committee, presided. C.P. Kunhimohammed, president of the chamber, were present.

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