Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)
Mangaluru, Aug 9: Amid media reports that Mangaluru International Airport may not operate flights during rains, the airport's public relations officer (PRO) has clarified that there is no proposal to shut down the airport during the rainy season. He also said that reports that have appeared in a section of the media in this respect are not true.
The PRO also said that flight operations will take place as usual from the international airport. A flight to Dubai carrying 165 passengers will leave at 12.40 pm of Sunday, August 9 as scheduled.
"Vande Bharat Mission and chartered flights are flying as scheduled. Indigo flights from Dubai and Dammam are also functioning normally. The flight that was scheduled from Muscat on Monday is cancelled. Flight are also departing and arriving from Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. On Saturday, due to bad weather, the flight that had arrived from Bengaluru to the city could not land and has returned to Bengaluru," said the PRO giving details of the flight operations from the airport.
On Saturday August 8, news agency IANS had quoted airport director V V Rao as stating that flight operations at Mangauru airport "are not allowed during heavy rains, as visibility will be poor and chance of skidding on the runway is more."
His statement came in the light of an Air India Express Boeing 737 from Dubai crash landing at the Kozhikode airport in neighbouring Kerala on Friday night after skidding on the table-top runway amid heavy rains, claiming 18 lives, including its two pilots.