Onus on Air India to resume operations of wide-bodied aircraft from Karipur

Kozhikode: Ever since Saudia, the Saudi Arabian airlines, announced its flights from Jeddah and Riyadh to the Calicut International Airport, Karipur, the reluctance of Air India to restart its long-distance flights from Karipur, especially to Saudi Arabia, is again in the news. Air India stopped its services from Karipur on April 30, 2015.

People's representatives from constituencies in and around the airport had met the Air India chairman in July to expedite restarting of wide-bodied aircraft operations to Jeddah and Riyadh from here. “Out of 18 lakh Keralites in the Middle East, five lakh-odd are in Saudi Arabia of which 3 lakh are from Malappuram and Kozhikode districts. These people, since 2015, have been compelled to resort to other distant airports affecting aged Hajj pilgrims and also in transporting the dead. Out of 137 operational airports in India, Air India is learnt to have had the most profitable route on Kozhikde-Saudi sector. On August 9, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) lifted the ban on code E aircraft and issued No Objection of Certificate (NOC) to Saudia for commencement of wide-bodied operation from Karipur,” said Kozhikode MP M K Raghavan.

“Air India is learnt to have 5,000-odd unutilised seats under bilateral quota with Saudi Arabia when Saudia faced crisis in bilateral quota seats and constraints in adding new destinations. By overcoming all hurdles, Saudia is all set to commence their operations using wide-bodied aircraft (B777-200 ER and A330-300) to Saudi Arabia, before our national airline. Unfortunately, Air India is not taking initiative to coordinate and restart the most profitable wide-bodied aircraft operations on Calicut-Saudi sector at a time when it is said to be in huge loss to the tune of thousands of crores,” he added.

The blame game between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Air India continue to delay the operations of wide-bodied aircraft of the national carrier, according to the MP.

The AAI claims that the airlines is yet to give the study reports as per the guidelines of document 9981 of International Civil Aviation Organisation and it is yet to make a joint assessment with the former. However, Air India continues to argue that it has given all the required documents to the AAI.

In effect, even after the DGCA gave the green signal to resume the operation of wide-bodied aircraft at Karipur, the passengers are not getting the benefit of cheaper fare to destinations like Saudi Arabia.