Mangalore, October 27: The Mangalore-Kuwait Air India finally began its operations on Monday October 27th, at 7.30 am with the first flight taking off from Mangalore International Airport making the travellers joyous and relieved.
MLA J R Lobo, Karnataka minister Roshan Baig, MLC Ivan D’Souza and MP Nalin Kumar Kateel along with several organizations and individuals had continuously strived to reintroduce the Mangalore-Kuwait flight service which had been held up for about a year.
Addressing the media persons, J R Lobo, who had boarded the flight to Kuwait along with his wife, said, “Mangalore-Kuwait flight service had been stopped nearly for a year. Eight months ago this issue was raised in the Vidhana Sabha, our state government discussed it with the central government and we got the reply that Mangalore was very poor in financial investments and there were not many flight services and therefore reintroduction of the Mangalore-Kuwait flight service was not possible.
He said, “In July 2014, once again we met Air India director and managing director and explained our problems. They said that they would look into our problem, after which we met union minister of state for civil aviation G M Siddeshwar and urged him to resume the flight service. There was a positive outcome of the meeting”.
“It is easy to start a flight service, but mainly it should gain profits in return to continue the flight operations,” he added.He urged all Mangaloreans to patronize this sector and live up to their promises to keep it going. “We tried our best and it is time for the people to take care of it,” he said.
MLA J R Lobo thanked Roshan Baig profusely for supporting the cause. “Mangalore should be developed and for this reason I am going to hold talks with Kuwait passengers to make them invest in Mangalore. I am going to Kuwait to discuss this topic with various organisations there,” he said.
Vijay Kumar Shetty, former MLA congratulated J R Lobo and said, “We should not stop this service anymore in future, as J R Lobo has put all his efforts into restarting it.”
During this occasion, Nagesh Shetty Mangalore Air India manager, deputy mayor Kavitha Vasu, Denis D’Silva, T K Sudhir and others were present.
Flight Schedules:
The Mangalore to Kuwait flight operates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, which departs from Mangalore at 7.30 am and will reach Kuwait via Bahrain at 11.15 am (local time).
The flight from Kuwait to Mangalore will operate non-stop during the return path, leaving Kuwait at 12.15 pm local time and arriving in Mangalore at 19.25 hours.
