Mangalore, Oct7: The United Associations of Karnataka, Kuwait, on Thursday urged the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry to provide temporary operating permission to low-budget airlines in Kuwait and low-budget Government-owned airlines of India to fly between Kuwait and Mangalore directly.
Addressing presspersons here its coordinator (Government affairs) Pascal Pinto said the Director General Civil Aviation, Kuwait and Director General Civil Aviation, India, entered into an agreement in July 2006 to allow Jazeera Airways to fly from Kuwait to Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi.
As a result the airline started its services this September. The same airline may be permitted to operate between Kuwait and Mangalore.
At present if people from Mangalore wanted to fly to Kuwait via Mumbai it would take at least six hours.
If a direct flight were introduced between Mangalore and Kuwait the journey time would be four hours and six minutes, he said.
Pinto said a passenger travelling from Mangalore to Kuwait via Mumbai had to spend a night at Mumbai. This was because the flight from Mumbai to Kuwait was scheduled at 6 am.
So a passenger from Mangalore has to board an afternoon flight to Mumbai and stay there overnight to start the journey the next morning. If a direct flight was introduced between Kuwait and Mangalore passengers could save money.
He thanked M R Vasudeva, director, Mangalore airport, Airports Authority of India (AAI), for taking a pro-active role for the upgradation of Bajpe airport .