Welcoming Air India’s commercial flight service to Mysuru slated for operations from September 3 through its subsidiary Alliance Air, stakeholders have sought an additional connecting flight to the city late in the evening to facilitate same-day return.
At a meeting held at the Mysuru Airport on Sunday, Pratap Simha, Mysuru MP; members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Mysore Industries’ Association, and representatives of the hospitality sector, travel agencies and educational institutions impressed upon Air India representatives that a late evening return flight to Mysuru was needed.
Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, has announced flight services to Mysuru from September 3 for six days a week, except on Wednesdays. Flight No. 9I 513 will depart from Bengaluru at 6 a.m. and reach Mysuru at 6.40 a.m and in the return direction, Flight 9I 514 will depart from Mysuru at 7 a.m. to reach Bengaluru at 7.40 a.m.
CII Mysuru chairman N. Muthukumar said the timing of the outbound flight from Mysuru was perfect to facilitate onward journey from Bengaluru to the rest of India, and expressed optimism that it would receive high patronisation.
However, a return flight late in the evening was needed to have better connectivity to the city, he added.
The stakeholders made a suggestion to the Air India representative, R. Kannan, that flights bound to Kochi or Coimbatore could be routed through Mysuru as there was sufficient passenger traffic for these two cities from both the business and tourist crowd. Jaykumar and Prashanth, representing the tour and travel industry, sought an additional flight from Bengaluru to Mysuru at 8 a.m., as most inbound flights from other cities would land at KIA only around 8 a.m.
Rajendra, from the hospitality sector, said that Mysuru received around 3.5 million tourists every year and regular flight services could pave the way for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) tourism. Mr. Prashanth said passenger load could be assured because 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the 3.5 million tourists who visit Mysuru preferred to fly.
Mysuru Airport Director M.K. Singh was present.
