Alliance Air, Jet Airways to operate special flights to flood-hit Kerala; here's the schedule

NEW DELHI: In order to improve connectivity to people in the worst flood-hit Kerala, several major airlines have announced special flights to the southern state. 

According to reports, the Alliance Air – a subsidiary of the government-run Air India - will commence operations from the Kochi Naval base to aid the rescue operations in flood-hit Kerala, commencing from August 20. 

The announcement and schedule regarding special Air Alliance flights was made by Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu. The minister, in one of his tweets, said that more destinations, including Madurai, will be added soon.

In view of disruption of flights from Cochin airport due to floods, a joint team sent by @MoCA_GoI has approved starting of scheduled commercial flights using ATRs by Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, between Bangalore and Cochin Naval Air base. #KeralaFloods — Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 18, 2018

The flight operations between Bangalore and Cochin Naval Airbase will be starting from 20th August morning. More destinations such as Coimbatore, Madurai are also in the pipeline. Other airlines are likely to join this effort too. All possible steps are being taken #KeralaFloods — Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) August 18, 2018

The Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways will also operate additional domestic flights to Thiruvananthapuram from Mumbai, Bangalore, Dubai and Dammam with effect from Sunday, August 19. 

#9Wupdate #Kochi #KeralaFloods
Pls RT to those who need to travel there asap. pic.twitter.com/D2qnSJJRGs — Jet Airways (@jetairways) August 18, 2018

Along with the schedule for additional flights, Jet Airways also put out a list of flights cancelled/rescheduled:

#9Wupdate #Kochi #KeralaFloods pic.twitter.com/7Ozv0Hseit

— Jet Airways (@jetairways) August 18, 2018

As the Kochi airport is closed due to floods in Kerala, Air India WILL operate from Kochi Naval Base to evacuate stranded people from flood-affected areas.

In a statement, Air India said, "As an exemplary initiative to fly out stranded people, AI's subsidiary Alliance Air operated a non-commercial "proving flight" on an ATR (turboprop) to Kochi's naval base with a team of DGCA, AAI and Flight Safety officials. Flight 9I 105 landed at Kochi at 1240 hrs from Bangalore and the return flt 9I106 took off from Kochi at 1345 hrs."

"This whole exercise is aimed at confirming the feasibility of having Alliance Air operate more flights to Cochin's defence airbase with turboprops to evacuate passengers," the statement further read.

On the other hand, in a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) pilots on the Airbus 320 and Boeing 787 in Air India, announced that it will fly planes without payment to support Operation Madad and Operation Sahyog to help the people in Kerala.

The state of Kerala has been hit by severe rainfall over the past few weeks, causing acute flooding and landslides. So far, 368 people have lost their lives due to the floods. 

(With Agency Inputs)