JOIN USIn what could be a flicker of hope in putting Mysuru on the aviation map again, a domestic airline has shown interest in flying to the City of Palaces. Andhra Pradesh-based Air Costa has resumed talks with the airport authorities after a gap of one year.
Mysuru Airport director, C Manjunath, told Deccan Herald that Air Costa, the Vijayawada-based airline, had been provided with technical details a month ago and its reply was awaited. The airline was given the details about the runway width and length (it’s 1,740 metres long and 30 metres wide—conducive for operating smaller aircraft). Air Costa was in talks with the airport authorities earlier too when SpiceJet was already operating flights from Mysuru.
SpiceJet withdrew the services permanently on October 27, 2014, prompting the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which operates and maintains the airport, to resume talks with Air Costa. The airline was quick to respond but the result is awaited.
“Air Costa is keen on connecting tier II cities as it already operates daily flights to nine destinations, including Bengaluru. The other cities are Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Tirupati, Chennai, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Jaipur,” said Manjunath.
According to him, the flight service was slowly gaining foothold in Mysuru with the passenger occupancy rate increasing to 62 per cent in 2014, up from 58 per cent in 2013. It was in January 2013 that SpiceJet launched the flight service from Mysuru to Bengaluru, connecting up to Chennai, only to withdraw it last October. After crossing many hurdles, Mysuru Airport had taken shape in September 2009. Kingfisher Airlines introduced a daily flight service between Mysuru and Bengaluru before winding it up in November 2011.
Although SpiceJet came as a ray of hope, it couldn’t offer to run the services for long. Since then, the airport authorities are making consistent efforts to attract other airlines.