Flight services from Kerala to Gulf resume

WITH Iran and Israel reaching a ceasefire agreement, flight services to the Gulf and Middle East regions resumed from Kerala on Tuesday noon, a development which will come as a boon to many Malayalis stranded abroad.

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"Flight operations to Gulf sector have resumed. But since a majority of them are operating at night usually, the services will return to normal later today," said a spokesperson of the Cochin International Airport Limited. CIAL operates the largest number of flights to the Gulf sector, especially destinations like Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, from Kerala.

The airlines too confirmed the resumption of services, but said it would take some time for the operations to return to normal, citing factors like flight availability and clearance of passenger backlogs.

An Indigo flight (6E 1475 -- Kochi - Dubai) took off from the Kochi airport at 6.50 pm. The Air India Express, which had earlier temporarily suspended flights to the region, also resumed operations on Tuesday. However, upon resumption, the first flight from Kochi to the Middle East sector departed only during the early hours of Wednesday (June 25).