Bahrain Air and representatives of the country's transport ministry are heading to India in an attempt to resolve a dispute over flights to Kerala
A sudden cancellation of Bahrain Air's newly-launched flight to Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday night left 140 passengers stranded for more than 24 hours, according to Bahrain's Gulf Daily News.
The airline chartered a Jet Airways aircraft to transfer the passengers to Manama and is beleived to be doing the same again today in order to meet its commitment to passengers
In an official statement the airline has announced its regret and said that the Indian authorities had not yet approved the continuation of its flights to Thiruvananthapuram for the summer season, which started on March 25.
This was supported by reports from India which said the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had not given the mandatory approval for the continuation of the flights from Bahrain to Thiruvananthapuram airport for the summer schedule that commenced on Sunday.
The flights of the airline to Karipur, Nedumbaserry and Mumbai, the three other destinations, are operating as per schedule, airport sources said. Bahrain Air launched its flights to Thiruvananthapuram as part of a bilateral agreement between the two countries and after a two-year wait.
"The airline and the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry knew that the contract would expire on March 24, but they just left the issue ride without negotiating a new deal," a spokesperson at the Indian Embassy in Bahrain said.
It was barely a week ago that Bahrain Air announced it had secured four additional flights to Thiruvananthapuram which would allow it to increase to seven flights per week by summer. The Bahrain Air website has no mention of the dispute but just shows flighs as unavailable.
Article Source : Arabian Aerospace
No comments:
Post a Comment