Demand for evening flight from Mysore airport

With the commercial flight service set to resume from Mysore Airport at Mandakalli from September 3, stakeholders in the city exhorted Air India to operate an additional flight in the evening hours.

Participating in a meeting convened at the airport on Sunday, representatives of various associations, led by MP Prathap Simha, appealed to Air India Station Manager, Bengaluru, R K Kannan to operate evening flight at least during the late evening hours to enable the outbound fliers if any, same day return.

Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, has committed to operate flights six days a week, except Wednesday, in the early morning hours.

The flight is expected to leave Bengaluru at 6 am and arrive in Mysuru at 6.40 am and on return journey, the flight would depart Mysuru at 7 am and reach Bengaluru at 7.40 am.
Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Mysuru chapter, N Muthukumar exuded confidence that the late evening flight, if operated would definitely propel the aviation industry from Mysuru side. The current schedule (in the morning) would surely help the fliers to connect to other prominent destinations, he added.

Jaykumar and Prashanth from Mysore Travel Agents’ Association stressed on revising the schedule to 8 am against 6 am from Bengaluru side. They felt that the early morning flight may not attract more traffic as the flights from other cities usually start to land at Kempegowda International Airport, at Devanahalli around 8 am. Prashanth said it may serve handy as 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the 3.5 million tourists who visit Mysuru can afford to fly.

President of Karnataka Pradesh Hotel Owners’ Association M Rajendra said the decision to resume flight service would definitely boost tourism industry besides meetings, conferences and exhibitions. 

The stakeholders also suggested Kannan to explore the possibilities to operate flights bound to Kochi or Coimbatore via Mysuru in both the directions, given the passenger traffic for these destinations, especially of businessmen and tourists.

President of Mysore Industries Association P Vishwanath urged the Air India representatives to commit for one year, the time required for any
industry to stabilise in the realm.

However, some were of the opinion that the departure of flight at 7 am from Mysuru is suffice to attract the fliers.

M Lohit Urs, a member of Airport Advisory Council, welcomed the initiative as it would help attract more tourists to the city.

In his reply, Kannan said the suggestions would be duly forwarded to higher officials for further action. Kannan also inspected the facilities in place ahead of the flight service.
Director of Mysore Airport M K Singh was also present.
DH News Service