Air India cuts Sharjah, Dubai flights to Kerala

Air India, the national carrier of India, has cancelled flights on its busy Dubai and Sharjah routes, a decision not likely to be welcomed by the Indian community in the UAE. 

“Air India has cancelled five services from Kerala to the Gulf region as part of the winter schedules,” an airline source told this website.

Two daily flights, Dubai to Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), IX 540 and IX 539 are cancelled.

“There will be only five Dubai-Thiruvananthapuram flights now, as against seven flights per week, earlier.

“Similarly, Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram flights have been reduced from five per week to three per week,” the source said . 

IX 536 and IX 535, are the Sharjah flights cancelled.

These route cancellations coincide with the starting a new Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah service by Jet Airways from October 30, 2011.

All India Airport Users Forum, a representative body of passengers in collaboration with the Malabar Pradesh Coordination Committee (MPCC) has registered their protest against the cancellation of the flights.

“We are going to start a new campaign against the cancellation. We thought a new civil aviation minister would not cancel busy flights and replace the new aircraft with old planes. They have promised to improve service, but instead they are cancelling busy routes,” said K M Basheer, President, All India Airport Users Forum.

Jet Airways is introducing a new service, Flight 9W 570 which will depart Thiruvananthapuram at 1015 hours local time (LT) and arrive in Sharjah at 1240 hours (LT).

The return flight 9W 569 will depart Sharjah at 1340 hours (LT), arriving in Thiruvananthapuram at 1900 hours (LT).

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.