Mangaluru: Although 150 kms away, the Kannur International Airport is seeing more favour from Managalureans as it has daily trips to the Gulf region, compared to only three a week from Mangaluru. Additionally, their flight timings are also more convenient.
Now, out of 3 lakh expats from the Dakshin Kannada district, several passengers from Mangaluru and the surrounding areas are avoiding the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) and are taking flights from Kannur to Gulf. Daily flights to the Gulf not only save the passengers workdays, but the convenient timings make for a pleasant journey compared to the ungodly arrival and departure timings at the Mangalore International Airport.
Earlier, the Mangaluru airport was covered by Jet Airways and Air India Express, but after the former went out of business, the national carrier has not revised any of its schedules to meet the needs of the commuters.
All these factors are making commuters opt to take a rather long but convenient detour to the Kannur International Airport. With daily flights ensuring that they can arrive for work or leave on vacation on the day that they actually need to, they do not have to lose workdays only to accommodate the shortcomings of MIA’s flight schedules. Additionally, commuters have discovered that, by travelling in groups, they can carpool on arrival or when setting out and share the cab costs.
Owing to this development, MIA is seeing a loss in air traffic and porters and taxi operators who are stationed at the airport are also facing huge losses. Memorandums have been submitted by the Buntara Sangha Kuwait and other people have also requested MP Nalin Kumar Kateel to change the timings.
Airport Director V V Rao, however, is not disturbed by these developments. Speaking to TOI, he said that it is for an operator to take a call on the matter of flight frequencies and timings. He feels that passenger traffic has not been lost to Kannur.