Demand for maiden Kannur-AUH flight spikes; tickets sell out fast

189 Passenger capacity of the new Air India Express flights from Kannur to Abu Dhabi

1.5m Expected annual number of travellers at the soon-to-open Kannur Airport

abu dhabi — Tickets for the maiden Air India (AI) Express flight from the soon-to-be-launched Kannur International Airport in Kerala, India, to Abu Dhabi are extremely high in demand, according to the airline’s senior officials.

Flights to Sharjah from Kannur will also be added to the network in a day or two, while flights to and from Dubai will be up around December 15, officials said.

“The first international flight is set to fly out on 10am (IST) on December 9, the same date as the official opening day,” PG Prageesh, chief of corporate communication at AI Express, told Khaleej Times on Tuesday.

Tickets for the maiden flight went live on Monday, and within moments, ‘express value’ tickets had been completely sold out, according to the airline’s website. A few ‘express flexi’ tickets remained available at Press time.

AI Express flights on the KannurAbu Dhabi network are available every other day; hence the next return trip from the Capital to Kannur is slated for Tuesday, December 11.

Lower-priced seats on December 9 were sold out and slightlyhigher-priced tickets valued at Rs33,439 (nearly Dh1,691) were still available at Press time. Return flights from Abu Dhabi to Kannur on the same day are expected to depart the Capital at 1.30pm and arrive in Kannur at 7pm. The tickets are priced at Rs48,953.50 (Dh2,477).

Currently, AI Express is the only airline that will be running international flights out of the Kannur Airport. It will also be operating flights between Kannur and Doha, as well as Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“There was great enthusiasm in the market. We can’t reveal the number of bookings as at now, as it is commercially confidential,” Prageesh said. The Boeing 737 800 flight has a capacity of 189 passengers.

The Kannur Airport will be able to handle 2,000 passengers at a time. Expected to serve more than 1.5 million international passengers annually, it is also bound to change the image of north Kerala, sparking tourism and business activities, especially handloom, textile and floriculture, experts have said. The airport will start off with a runway of 3,050 metres, but 18 months after it opens, its runway length will be expanded to 3,400 metres. Eventually, it will be extended to 4,000 metres, making it one of the four biggest airports in India.

Kerala will then be the only state to have four international airports, with the others being Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.