Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore
Mangalore, July 3: Mangalore: UAKK, KORWA delegation requests MP Kateel to restore Kuwait flights
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore
Mangalore, Jul 3: A delegation from United Associations of Karnataka Kuwait (UAKK), and Konkan Overseas Returnees Welfare Association (KORWA) visited Nalin Kumar Kateel, Member of Parliament, Government of India, on Thursday Jul 3 at his office in Mangalore and requested his intervention with the union aviation ministry with regard to the restoration of direct flights in the Kuwait–Mangalore sector.
The delegation said that more than 1,30,000 Kuwait-bound passengers from Mangalore, coastal Karnataka, and northern parts of Kerala have been put to untold hardships and their flying time now has been extended from 4 to 12 hours since Air India Express (AIE) wrapped up its flight services along the Kuwait-Mangalore sector from February 15, 2014. The plight of the elderly and families with small kids has become miserable as they have to transit through Mumbai or Bangalore.
The delegation stated that all the flights to Kozhikode and Kochi are operating as usual. AIE could have continued the Kuwait-Mangalore-Kozhikode flight and could have looked at other possible options, and the travel hardships of Kuwait-bound passengers from coastal Karnataka could have been avoided. The delegation wondered whether the flight destinations were changed intentionally from Kuwait-Mangalore-Kozhikode to Kuwait-Kozhikode-Kochi to prove the point of lack of load so that the
flight could be cancelled under pressure from certain lobbies.
Suspension of the Kuwait-Mangalore flights has caused hardships to thousands of NRIs from coastal Karnataka and northern Kerala and the delegation requested Nalin Kumar Kateel to look into this matter and put pressure on the civil aviation ministry to restore the AIE services or any other private airlines to introduce their flights as soon as possible to ensure that the region and its people do not suffer on account on this sudden withdrawal of the Mangalore-Kuwait flight services.
The delegation included KORWA president Louis Lobo, vice-president Elias Sanctis, UAKK chief coordinator Hasan Yusuf, , Archie Menezes, S M Farooq, KKMA co-coordinator, Jessie Pinto, David D’Souza, John Tauro , Gretta Gomes, and Dev Kumar.