UAE airlines resume flights

The UAE airlines said they are resuming flights to India’s Cochin International Airport effective yesterday as the airport reopened nearly two weeks after it was forced to stop operations due to flooding.

Emirates airline, Etihad Airways, flydubai and Air Arabia all confirmed to Gulf News they were resuming flights to the airport in Kerala, the southern Indian state that was devastated by severe rain and flooding. Kerala’s Cochin Airport stopped operations as a result of the flooding on August 14.

‘Flydubai flights to Cochin will resume with FZ441 departing Dubai International at 10pm on August 29,’ the carrier said in a statement.

The first flydubai flight to Dubai from Cochin following the airport reopening will be at 2.50am today.

Similarly, Emirates said it

Emirates airline, Etihad Airways, flydubai and Air Arabia all confirmed to Gulf News they are resuming flights to the airport in Kerala.

has already resumed operations to the airport, as Etihad Airways said it was to resume operations with a flight at 1.55pm yesterday. A spokesperson for Etihad said that the carrier may have short delays to make sure Cochin Airport is fully operational.

Sharjah’s Air Arabia also said its first flight was scheduled from Sharjah to Cochin at 1.10pm yesterday.

Meanwhile, Cochin Airport confirmed in a statement that it would commence ‘full-scale operations, both international and domestic,’ at 2pm (local time) yesterday. ‘Passengers can now book tickets to/from [Cochin Airport] as most of the airline’s sites have already started facilitating journey planner on or after August 29,’ the airport said.

According to preliminary estimates, Kerala has seen a loss of Rs200 billion (Dh10.40 billion) since August 8.