Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, will introduce regular flights from Mysuru to Mangaluru in a move that will enhance the region’s connectivity to coastal Karnataka.
The flight was tentatively scheduled to commence from October 25 but Mysuru Airport Director R. Manjunath said that the date of commencement will be confirmed in a day or two as there were certain issues to be ironed out.
“But the timings have been fixed and the flight will arrive at Mysuru at 8.50 a.m. and depart for Mangaluru at 9.30 a.m. The scheduled timing is ideal as people flying into Mysuru or Mangaluru will have the entire day for them on reaching their respective destinations,” he added.
There was tremendous demand for direct flight connectivity from Mysuru to Mangaluru since many years as Mysuru has a sizeable population of people from the coastal region. The road travel was not only cumbersome but would take an entire night making it tedious. Travelling during monsoon used to be fraught with uncertainty due to heavy rains that lash along the route, especially when passing through Kodagu district.
Mr. Manjunath said he expects the flights to operate at full capacity as the number of people and stakeholders from both tourism and industrial sector who evinced interest in the route was high.
The flight will be operated under the Centre’s UDAN scheme, and once launched Mangaluru would be the seventh destination to have air connectivity from Mysuru. The other cities already linked to Mysuru by air include Kochi, Goa, Chennai, Bengaluru, Belagavi and Hyderabad.
Welcoming the development, Suresh Kumar Jain of Mysore Industries Association said the passenger load from Mysuru to Mangaluru was assured as there were a large number of hoteliers, industrialists and people in the service sector belonging to coastal region who had settled in Mysuru.
