Bahrain Air that was forced to suspend flight operations from Bahrain to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport here for the past three weeks over the traffic rights on the Bahrain-Thiruvananthapuram-Bahrain sector will resume operations from Friday.
The decision to commence the flights comes in the wake of the mandatory clearance given by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to the low-fare premium privately owned national carrier of Bahrain to operate flights. Airline sources said the services would resume on April 20 and that flights would be operated as per schedule on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Talks held
The stalemate was resolved following talks held among the Civil Aviation Affairs Authority; Embassy of Bahrain in India; Indian Embassy; and the Bahrain Air authorities in New Delhi earlier this month. The airline had delayed the commencement of the flight operations on the sector as the authorities concerned had not given written clearance.
Flight operations to Thiruvananthapuram were suspended on March 29 as the civil aviation authorities refused to give the nod for the continuation of flights from Bahrain as per the summer schedule that began on March 25. Hundreds of passengers had been affected following the decision and the airline had leased an aircraft of the Jet Airways to operate two flights from Thiruvananthapuram to Bahrain on March 30 and 31 to take the passengers who had already booked tickets.
The airline did not continue the operations as it had to spend around Rs.1.5 crore for the two services.
Airline sources said that online reservation for service on April 20 had commenced.
Richard Nutall, Chief Executive Officer, Bahrain Air, announced that the airline would increase the number of flights to Thiruvananthapuram to seven a week from the present four this summer.
