RIYADH, 19 March 2004 — Keralites in the Kingdom are upset that Air-India has taken its Riyadh-Calicut flight off its summer schedule, which comes into effect on April 1.
Keralite organizations in the capital have formed a committee to ask Air-India to continue the flight, which they feel is viable given large numbers of potential passengers.
Keralites account for 60 percent of the 1.6 million non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the Kingdom. Gulf Keralites account for half of all NRI foreign remittances, estimated at 550 billion rupees (SR45.83 billion).
“It is not fair for the airline to stop the direct flight to Calicut since this could cause a lot of inconvenience to the large number of Calicut passengers,” the committee’s chairman I. P. Osman Koya told Arab News.
Under the new schedule, the airline operates six flights a week to Mumbai with connecting flights to Calicut.
Koya added that the Indian government should do more to assist NRIs given how much they contribute to national coffers through their remittances.
Air-India regional manager P. Senthil Kumar told Arab News the appeal of the Keralites was “reasonable” and he had taken up their case with his management in Bombay.
Kumar added he was seeking permission to operate a direct flight to Calicut replacing a Madras flight which has seen few takers.
Air-India’s Dammam-Calicut flight has also been scrapped, apparently for lack of demand, according to the airline’s manager for the Eastern Province Shantaram Valke.
