Kannur Airport: Air India Express to open reservation website on Friday

Kannur: Ticket reservations for Air India Express flights from Kannur to destinations in the Gulf countries are expected to commence on Friday, as informed earlier by the airlines sources. By Friday evening the website for these bookings will be open. However, no official press release has yet been issued about this.

Meanwhile there have been complaints from the passenger community about the timing of the Abu Dhabi-Kannur-Kannur flights, because as of now its daytime arrivals and departures at both ends, will force passengers to lose a day. And all flights will be on weekdays of the Gulf. Calls have already been raised by this segment for changing the flights to overnight or late evening schedules and also to include the Gulf weekend of Thursday-Friday in it.

However, Air India sources indicated that it would not be possible to reschedule flights at this stage, since they are prepared according to the time slots allocated by respective airorts. The slots are generally prepared considering the flight traffic density of each airport at particular hours. And when it comes to busy airports, i.e. those with high frequency of flight movement, the option open for airlines will be that much limited.

When more flights start operating from Kannur airport, there may be further changes depending on the density there.

Air India Express has scheduled four flights a week to and from Abu Dhabi and Doha, and three flights from and to Riyadh. Services to and from Dubai and Sharja will operate daily.

In a related development regarding the inaugural flight, KIAL has directed Air India Express to operate its maiden flight to Abu Dhabi with departure at 10 a.m., that is an hour ahead of its original plan of 11 a.m. This is is to facilitate wrapping up the inauguration ceremony in the forenoon itself, for if the flight takes off at 11 am, it will necessitate extending the inaugural ceremony untill afternoon too.