Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has set up a 24X7 control room to help air travellers stranded due to suspension of flight operations at Kochi.
The Kochi airport is shut for flights until August 18 due to heavy rains and flooding of the operational area. Airlines have been asked to divert their flights to and from Kochi to nearby Thiruvananthpuram and Calicut airports as well as not to raise airfares disproportionately.
"The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the domestic airlines will be extending full support to the State Government of Kerala in airlifting food items and other relief material free of cost on their scheduled services, subject only to operational constraints, if any," wrote Suresh Prabhu, the Minister for Civil Aviation, on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the scheduled flights of the domestic airlines to and from Trivandrum and Calicut airports from August 16 have been monitored through Integrated Operational Control Centre (IOCC) of the airlines.
The DGCA control room received the following queries from the public:
- Re-scheduling status of flights, which was addressed after referring to the revised schedule submitted by the airlines for 16th August, 2018.
- High fare, especially on Delhi-Trivandrum sector. Concerned airlines were advised to keep a check on the fare and cap the maximum fare on Delhi-Trivandrum sector to ₹10,000. Airlines have also been advised to check the fares on other flights going to Trivandrum and Calicut.
The control room has spoken to Cochin airport for latest update on the weather. It has been informed that water level inside the airport continue to rise and heavy rain is predicted till Saturday.
The control room can be reached through the following DGCA personnel:
- Mr. A.X. Joseph, Dy. Dir.: +91-9871007874
- Mr. Atul Maindola, Dy. Dir.: +91-9999069074
- Mr. Kaushik Mukhopadhyay, Dy.Dir.: +91-8586094546
- Mr. Brijesh Kumar Singh, Ae.O.: +91-9717307448
- Mr. Ekshwaku Nandan Srivastava, Ae.O: +91-9990474145
“Due to heavy rains in Kerala, operations to/from Cochin airport have been suspended from August 15 to 18 on account of water rising in the operational area,” an official release from DGCA said. “However, Trivandrum and Calicut airports are available for scheduled operations. For international operations, both immigration and customs facilities are available 24X7 at these airports. Trivandrum airport can also accommodate wide body aircraft,” it added.
The press release went on to add that scheduled domestic airlines have been advised to reschedule their flights to/from Cochin to Trivandrum and Calicut airports till the situation at the Cochin airport returns to normal. The domestic airlines have also been advised to operate relief flights to Trivandrum/Calicut for passengers of diverted flights who have landed at Bangalore, Coimbatore and Chennai on August 15 morning instead of Cochin.
Meanwhile, flights of foreign airlines including Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad, Fly Dubai, Jazeera, Oman Air, Qatar, Saudia Airlines and Srilankan have been rescheduled for Trivandrum airport. Foreign airlines like Air Asia Berhad, Gulf Air, Kuwait Airlines, Malindo, Scoot, Silk Air and Thai Air Asia have suspended their flights to/from Cochin.
Passengers may reach to the airlines at following contact numbers
Domestic Airlines
Air India and Air India Express: +911149637728/+911149637693/+911149637714
Air Asia: +918046676713
Air Vistara: +919899451962
Go Air: +912267420154/+912267420156
IndiGo: +919560049400/+911246674040
Jet Airways: +912266075545
Spicejet: +911243913933
Foreign Airlines
Oman Air: +919846243130/+918594013197
Saudi Arabian: +914844028901
Fly Dubai: +918606580717
Air Arabia: +919895345000
Jazeera: +919885144427
Qatar: +914842611304/+914842611305/+919961439666
Emirates: +919846523454
Malindo: +918527266466
Air Asia Berhad and Thai Air Asia: +919995319187
Scoot: +919742710404
Srilankan: +919847064064
(With inputs from Jagrati Chandra)