Air India’s Kerala flight cancellation is an ‘insult to injury’: Shashi Tharoor
text_fields
New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor urged Air India Express to ‘stop treating Kerala as an afterthought’ as the national carrier decided to slash several flights from Kerala in the winter schedule.
Taking to social platform X and citing media reports, Tharoor pointed to the flight withdrawal from Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode, and Kannur between late October and March.
Tharoor expressed his ‘deep concern’ to Air India Managing Director and CEO Campbell Wilson over what said Air India Express’ continued neglect of the state, terming the flight cancellation an ‘insult to injury’.
‘Air India must stop treating Kerala as an afterthought: withdrawing business-class services on the longest single-sector flight in India (Delhi to Thiruvananthapuram) has already added insult to injury,’ Tharoor wrote on X.
Tharoor warned that in the event of the airline continuing its neglect of Kerala, ‘many of us will have no compunction about switching our allegiance to those who give us the attention we deserve’, particularly pointing out that ‘IndiGo and Akasa Air are waiting in the wings’.
‘I had publicly hailed Air India as my favourite airline. But when facts change, opinions can change too. I hope all concerned will pay due attention,’ The Thiruvananthapuram MP added.
Many came out responding to Tharoor’s post with one person saying ‘As an airline professional, I can vouch for Kerala’s market potential. Cutting frequencies & not revising bilaterals forces Keralites to route via other hubs — neither fair nor convenient for a community sending one of India’s highest inward remittances.’
Another user commented: ‘We need another player, Sir after, the exit of Jet Airways and kingfisher and the hobbling spicejet! Hope Tata or some new airline starts all over India. Indigo too takes pax for granted try them sometime albeit with a disguise!’
Kerala’s Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan in a letter to Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu said the national carrier’s decision was ‘deeply troubling.’