The absence of a strong lobby, both political and from the industry, in the city to press for the introduction of flights to more destinations from Tiruchi, especially by the national carrier has been a cause for concern for the travel trade.
Even as more and more private airlines are eyeing the city for its business potential, the crew shortage faced by Air India Express has raised a question mark on the national carrier's plans to expand its operations from the city.
The “crew problem” has already forced the airline to cancel its flights to Kuala Lumpur from the city on November 4 and 6.
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The airline has already notified the cancellation of the flights on the two days, along with the connecting service on Tiruchi-Chennai-Singapore route.
According to sources, the cancellation comes in the wake of the exodus of pilots from the airline to various private airlines and the recent Director General of Civil Aviation regulation increasing the mandatory rest period for pilots operating on night flights.
Given the serious shortage of pilots with nearly 25 to 30 per cent of the pilots of the airline reported to have resigned in the recent past, the airline may curtail the service further this month, it was feared.
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However, airline sources said no decision in this regard has been taken as yet.
At a time when the travel trade was expecting more flights to destinations, the cancellation of the services does not augur well for the airline.
The curtailment of the services would not only cause a revenue loss to the airline, but also lead to passenger traffic moving to other airports, travel industry representatives said.
Industry representatives blame the airlines poor management of resources and operations.
The priority of the airline should be on lucrative routes such as the Tiruchi-Kuala Lumpur sector, where the load factor was above 90 per cent.
Given the stiff competition from private air operators, the airline could hardly afford to lose traffic and credibility at this stage, they contend pointing out that the airline had withdrawn its Sharjah service, another lucrative sector, in 2009.
Many in the industry also bemoan the absence of a strong lobby, both political and from the industry, to take up such vital issues with the airline at the highest level and the government departments.
Meanwhile, the increase in frequency of the airlines service on the Chennai-Tiruchi-Abu Dhabi sector is seen as a saving grace.
A third frequency has been added to the hitherto twice-a-week service.
The additional weekly service would be operated on Mondays.