Mangalore: Flights to Bangalore Reduced to Three

Raviprasad Kamila/The Hindu
Fewer people are opting for flights
The move is stated to be temporary
Services to be restored from November 16
Mangalore, Oct 29: The number of daily flights between Mangalore and Bangalore has come down by 50 per cent in the past ten days. It appears to be the result of the proposed alliance between Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways.
The two airline companies were operating six daily flights from Mangalore to Bangalore.
The number has now been reduced to three flights a day. According to a Jet Airways official, it will replace its larger aircraft operating between the two cities with smaller ones by November 16.
M.R. Vasudeva, director, Mangalore Airport, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), told The Hindu that Kingfisher Airlines had withdrawn two flights while Jet Airways had withdrawn one. The Kingfisher Airlines had withdrawn the flights departing at 10.20 a.m. and 9.30 p.m. from here to Bangalore. Jet Airways had withdrawn its flight departing to Bangalore at 7.40 p.m.

"Temporary"
However, Pramod Nair, station manager, Jet Airways, Mangalore Airport, is understood to have informed the AAI that the withdrawal of its evening flight was for a short period between October 20 and October 31 due to commercial reasons.
He told The Hindu that the company had temporarily suspended its evening Boeing 737 flight. “It will remain suspended till November 15 and not till October 31 as planned earlier. It will be re-introduced from November 16. However, the Boeing 737 will be replaced with an ATR aircraft,” he said.

Existing flights
Mr. Vasudeva said that at present the airport was handling three flights between the two cities.
Of them, Kingfisher Airlines was operating two and Jet Airways one. The first flight of Kingfisher Airlines arrived here at 8.30 a.m. and departed at 9 a.m. The Jet Airways flight arrived at 9.05 a.m. and departed at 9.40 a.m. The last flight of Kingfisher Airlines arrived at 6.30 p.m. and departed at 7 p.m.
Mr. Nair said that Jet Airways would suspend its morning flight, also a Boeing 737, from November 1 to November 15. “We will re-introduce the service from November 16 with an ATR aircraft,” he said. Hence Jet Airways will operate only one ATR aircraft between the two cities.

Load factor
He said that Jet Airways was shifting to smaller aircraft considering the load and better yield factors. The passenger traffic between the two cities had declined this year, he said.
Mr. Vasudeva said that the four flights between Mumbai and Mangalore had not been disturbed.
The director said that Air India Express, which operates flights to five West Asian countries from here, had proposed to change the schedules of some of its services for the winter season. It had not said anything about reducing the number of its flights, he said. Sources in the airport said that the air fare between Mangalore and Bangalore had gone up recently. The operators were charging Rs. 8,000, and sometimes more, as one-way fare. There was a concession for tickets booked in advance, though, the sources said.