Post Covid slump, Mysuru airport flies high

Mysuru: After a gap of two years, the Mysore Airport is seeing a flurry of activity with all flights reporting full occupancy. The COVID-19 pandemic had badly hit the airline operations and the future looked bleak as industry experts predicted that it would take at least one year for return of good old days.

But defying grim predictions, the airline sector picked up early as evidenced by a large number of tourist arrival in Mysuru.

Tourists are landing in Mysuru by direct flights from various destinations and, as a result, the demand for flights to places like Goa, Hyderabad and Chennai has substantially increased.

There is a demand for additional flights as tourists find journey by trains and buses a bit tedious and time-consuming, said Airport Director R. Manjunath.

He reporters that every day, 12 planes take off and land talks are on with more airlines to commence operations from Mysuru, he added.

Mysuru has flight connections to Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Goa and the passenger footfall has reached the pre-pandemic levels.

"March 2022 recorded 14,600 people taking flights to and fro Mysuru and April too is encouraging and all the flights to Goa, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad are seeing 100 percent occupancy.

We are not worried any more about occupancy rates now unlike during initial stages.

Now notably, there is 100 percent occupancy rate even if some of the routes are not subsidised under the Centre's Regional

Connectivity Scheme UDAN (Ude Deshka Aam Naagrik)," he said. The airport authorities are keen on launching operators to other potential routes.

"There is a huge demand for flights to Shirdi, Mangaluru and Belagavi.

Also, stakeholders from the trade, industry and commerce sectors are seeking flights to Coimbatore and Pune.

We are in talks with Star Airways for flights to Belagavi and Mangaluru," he added.

From May 3, IndiGo will operate flight services to Hubballi. IndiGo will initially operate on the Mysuru-Hubballi sector thrice a week and will increase the schedule depending on the passenger response. The flight will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.