26 flights on domestic routes from Kannur’s new airport

www.mangaloretoday.com

Kannur, Jan 28, 2018: Two Indian carriers have come forward to operate 26 flights on 12 domestic routes from the Kannur international airport under the Centre’s UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme aimed at ensuring regional connectivity.

Under an MoU signed between the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India, and the State government, IndiGo will operate daily flights from Hubli, Delhi, Goa, Kochi, and Thiruvananthapuram to Kannur and back with the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of the State government.

Without the VGF, IndiGo will operate daily flights from Chennai, Bengalaru, and Hindon, near Ghaziabad, and Spice Jet from Chennai and Bengalaru to Kannur and back.

Compensation for loss  :  VGF is being used to bridge the gap between the cost of airline operations and the expected revenue. The State is expected to compensate for the loss with a VGF of about 20% and the rest will be borne by the Centre. The annual VGF component for these 26 flights from Kannur airport is Rs. 48.94 crore and the State’s contribution will be Rs. 9.78 crore.

The tenders for the Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Sholapur routes from the Kannur airport under UDAN will be opened soon, an official of Kannur International Airport Ltd said.

GoAir will operate daily flights to Dammam in Saudi Arabia and Jet Airways to Abu Dhabi in the UAE. These airlines have bagged traffic rights for the flight operations and will add a domestic leg to the international flights.

Air India Express has expressed keenness to operate from Doha, Kuwait, Riyadh, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah to the Kannur airport.

Air India, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Gulf Air, Air Asia, Air India Express, Oman Air, and Air Arabia have expressed keenness to operate flights to Kannur at a meeting of airline representatives convened by KIAL MD P. Balakiran here on January 19.

An open sky policy is needed as the bilateral rights are saturated in several destinations from the country to West Asia.