Chennai: The Tamil Nadu BJP has urged Union Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu to take steps to introduce direct flight services from Coimbatore to the Middle East at the earliest.
Union Minister of State for Finance and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan and Coir Board chairman and former president of Tamil Nadu BJP, C. P. Radhakrishnan who had called on Mr Suresh Prabhu in Delhi, stressed the need for operating the direct service from the textile city. Mr Prabhu was said to have assured his full support.
They had also sought for an early morning flight to Delhi and various amenities pertaining to Coimbatore airport.
At present, Mangaluru is domestically connected to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi with either direct or hop on hop off flights and internationally to almost all major destinations in the Middle East.
The Civil Aviation Minister has recently directed the Air India to restart its Mumbai-Mangaluru-Mumbai flights from October 1. Air India had cancelled IC 1680 Mangaluru-Mumbai and IC 1679 Mumbai Mangaluru flights from July 12 upto September 30, ostensibly for Haj operations.
The Minister directed the national carrier officials to restart the service immediately once the schedule drawn for Haj operations – a period of 81-days ended on September 30. Incidentally, this move by Air India to shut operations on a vital sector for nearly three-months did not go down well with the commuting public who had booked tickets in advance for the annual affair.
