Mangalore : There was a festive atmosphere at the Mangalore International Airport on April 3, Wednesday when the maiden Mangalore-Dammam direct flight with 160 passengers onboard finally took off from Mangalore International Airport at 5 p.m This is the first direct flight from Mangalore to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The 160 seat capacity flight took off from Calicut  at 3 pm and landed in Mangalore at 4 pm. It had  around 59 passengers in Mangalore.

K Jayaprakash Hegde, Udupi-Chikmagalur MP, Mangalore MLA UT Khader  were among other dignitiaries who boarded the maiden flight. Deputy General Manager of Air India Express, Mangalore Melwin D’Silva presented the boarding cards to the dignitaries

Airport Director T Radhakrishnan, Air India Express of Mangalore Melwin D’Silva and airport manager for Air India Sudhir Bhat accorded a warm welcome to all the passengers  checking-in for the Air India Express flight IXE 385, which landed in Mangalore from Calicut.

The flights will be twice a week from Mangalore to Dammam on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the return flight will leave  Dammam on Thursday and Sunday.