Mangalore - Kuwait Flight by July-end: Chellam Prasad

The Hindu
MANGALORE, Apr 29: Air India Express, the low cost carrier of Air India, will introduce a flight service between Kozhikode and Kuwait via Mangalore before July-end this year.
Chellam Prasad, Mangalore Station Manager, Air India, told The Hindu that this flight would operate three days a week. There had been a demand for such a flight service from the non-resident Indians in West Asia, she added.
Timings
She said that the flight would depart from Mangalore in the evening and arrive here from Kuwait in the morning. The exact timings of arrival and departure were yet to be announced. The flight operations between Mangalore and Kuwait would be via Abudhabi or Muscat, she said.
Since there was no aircraft base station at Mangalore, the flight would depart from Kozhikode. “This is like other flights of Air India Express which operate between Kozhikode and some of the destinations in West Asia,” she said.
Ms. Prasad said that the Air India Express operated 21 flights a week between Mangalore and different destinations in West Asia. The destinations are: Dubai, Abudhabi, Muscat, Bahrain and Doha. “With introduction of a new flight service to Kuwait, the passenger traffic between Mangalore and West Asia is expected to increase,” she added.
She said that the airlines began flight service between Mangalore and West Asia, particularly to Dubai, on October 3, 2006. Other services were introduced subsequently. The airlines handled 16,746 passengers from Mangalore to West Asia in 2006-07 and 75,987 passengers in 2007-08.
Chellam Prasad
Celebrations
In a press release, Ms. Prasad said that the Air India Express (AIE) celebrated its third anniversary of introducing first flight in Mangalore on Monday. The AIE, a wholly owned subsidiary of NACIL, was set up under Air India Charters Ltd. The inaugural flight flew on April 29, 2005 from Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to Abu Dhabi, she said.
Commencing its operations with three leased aircraft, the Air India Express fleet now boasts of 18 state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft, considered to be among the most technologically advanced single-aisle jet aircraft. By the end of 2009, it will have 25 aircraft in its fleet, of which seven would be on lease and 18 owned.

Mangalore: Revenue of Bajpe airport goes up

The Hindu

MANGALORE April 16: A year after it came out of the red, Mangalore airport of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at Bajpe made a remarkable operating profit in 2007-08. It made an operating profit 10 times more than what it was in 2006-07.
Its operating profit in 2007-08 stood at Rs. 8.61 crore whereas in 2006-07 it was Rs. 83 lakh, M.R. Vasudeva, director of the airport, told The Hindu.
The airport’s revenue and expenditure in the last financial year stood at Rs. 19.50 crore and Rs. 10.89 crore, respectively, he said.
When net profit is worked out by the auditors, it could be slightly lower than the operating profit which did not account for depreciation and rate of return, he added.
He attributed the growth in the operating profit to increase in traffic and non-traffic revenue. Traffic revenue came from aircraft movements in the form of route navigation, landing and parking charges. Non-traffic revenue constituted revenue earned from renting out its terminal building premises to airline operators, from hoardings and display advertisements, snack bar, car park, travel requisite stall, restaurant and the like.
As the number of flight movements went up, the revenue also increased. The number of aircraft movements went up from 6,268 in 2006-07 to 10,019 in the last financial year, he said. The passenger traffic at the airport went up from 4.74 lakh to 7.13 lakh.
The airport had made no profit in the previous five years — from 2001-02 to 2005-06. Its operating loss in 2005-06 stood at Rs. 2.8 crore.
Construction work
Referring to the on-going construction of new terminal building and apron on the premises of the airport, he said 40 per cent of the work had been completed. He said that concrete works of the basement of the building had also been completed. More than 40 per cent of the concrete works of the first floor had been completed.
Some critical construction material for the erection of roof of the building are expected to arrive from Jamshedpur in a few days.
Apron (parking facility for aircraft) works alone had been completed up to 75 per cent. The apron can accommodate five aircraft, four Airbus 310 and one Airbus 321, at a time.
Works on the construction of two aerobridges were under progress. This will enable passengers to board the flight from the security hold area in the first floor. Ground floor would have the offices of AAI, shops, arrival and departure halls. The basement would have check-in counters of airlines, immigration and custom offices, he said.

Change of Timing: Mangalore - Bahrain - Doha Flight

Change of Timing: Mangalore - Bahrain - Doha Flight
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Mangalore, April 2: In a short but official notice communicated by Chellam Prasad, manager of Air India Mangalore region has informed Daijiworld that the departure timing of Air India Express of Mangalore-Bahrain-Doha from Mangalore airport has been rescheduled from its earlier timing 18.10 hrs to 16.10 hrs with effect from April 3.
The flight will take-off two hours earlier than the existing departure time.
Currently three flights are operating weekly (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) between Mangalore-Doha-Bahrain.
However, there will be no changes in the existing departure timing from Bahrain and Doha.
Prasad requested passengers to cooperate with the new timing