Historic Mangalore-Kuwait Flight All Set to Take-off
Spot Report by Gladson D'Almeida
Daijiwork Media Network - Mangalore
Pics: Dayananda Kukkaje
To Watch Video - Part I - Click here
Mangalore, Jul 17: A long-chershed dream of lacs of Mangaloreans living in the distant land of Kuwait is now all set to be realized in a couple of hours' time from now. As the much-awaited moment is drawing near, everyone gathered here in Mangalore airport is having a feeling of being a witness of historic moment.
The formal inaguration of the maiden flight was done in the departure lounge of the airport in the presence of Mangalore airport director M R Vasudeva, Air India Express Mangalore manager head Chellam Prasad, Air India Express commercial manager Ratan Bali, chief finance officer Harish Pai and Karnataka NRI Forum convener Rajesh Sequeira, inspector in-charge for immigration Mangalore, Manjunath Shetty, Khandelwal, deputy commander for CISF, S B Samath, assistant commissioner of customs, KCCI president Kumble Narasimha Prabhu. The dignitaries lighted the lamp and then cut the cake as a symbol of formal inauguration of maiden Mangalore-Kuwait flight.
All those who had gathered to witness this historic moment were in for a great surprise when Sanjay Kumar and team from Mangalore presented a coulourful yakshagana. It was indeed a traditional touch to this historic moment.
Earlier addressing the media persons Ratan Bali said that Air India Express indeed proud to begin their services to Kuwait via Sharjah. "We at AI Express always treat Mangalore as one of the prime sectors and today to begin a direct flight to Kuwait is indeed an achievement of sorts to all of us. Kuwait is totally new destination for Air India Express and though it took a bit long time than anticipated it has finally been done," he said.
Speaking about the much-demanded direct flight to either Riyad, Dammam or Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bali said that even Air India Express is prepared to begin their service to this destination. "As of now I can say that a direct flight to KSA is our next immediate priority and with the arrival of our new aircraft, even this sector will be connected to Mangalore directly. Our total fleet strength is 25 and we have 19 flights as of now. Another 6 flights are expected to arrive in turns by October 2009," he added. All I can assure now is that KSA is next on Air India Express radar. Though I cannot tell you as on which date we will fly directly to KSA, I can assure you that it will happen very soon. From the day we had first international flight from Mangalore, that is, on October 3, 2006, to now, we have grown day by day. From those 3 flights per day we now have reached 14 flights per day. So growth is positive," he concluded.
To Watch Video - Part I - Click here