Mangaluru: Mangaluru International Airport is looking forward to the start of winter schedule from October 29 with a sense of eagerness. Re-entry of SpiceJet after a short hiatus and entry of Air India Express on the domestic sector with flights to this coastal city and Indian aviation sector leader IndiGo adding muscle to its existing schedule on niche routes will ensure that passengers have a lot more to cheer about. Air India too will make its domestic presence felt, meaningfully.

MIA will see growth of flights by up to 26% between October 29 and November 15. This is since the airlines are augmenting their winter schedule in a phased manner during this period. As on date, the airport is handling 136 flights weekly – both domestically and on the international sector. This will increase marginally to 138 flights (1% growth) on October 29, rise to 145 (7%) from November 3; 158 flights (16%) from November 6 and 172 flights (26%) from November 15.

SpiceJet will introduce 2 daily flights to Bengaluru starting November 6 except on Tuesday using a 78-seater Bombardier aircraft. On Tuesday, the airline will operate only one flight. IndiGo will add a 4th daily flight to Mumbai starting November 3 and augment it to five flights on every second and fourth Saturday. IndiGo’s operation to Chennai with ATR aircraft will receive a boost with additional flights on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday in addition to its existing daily flight.

There will be no change in IndiGo’s operations to Bengaluru (5 daily flights), Hyderabad (2 daily) and Delhi (1 daily). Poona will be 3 flights per week (Mon, Thu and Sun). Air India Express (AIE) will start its domestic run from Mangaluru with daily two flights to Bengaluru starting November 15. The second daily flight on its inbound run will operate on Kannur-Bengaluru-Mangaluru sector and on the outbound run from Mangaluru to Thiruvananthapuram via Bengaluru.

With this, the daily flights to Bengaluru will rise to 9 from current 5, Mumbai from 5 to 6 (and 7 every second/fourth Saturday), IndiGo also has plans to restart through flights to Patna, Ranchi and Kolkata as the winter season that ends on March 30, 2024, progresses. Internationally, AIE will operate to Dubai (2 daily), Abu Dhabi (4/week); Damman and Muscat (3/week), Doha and Bahrain (2/week) and Kuwait (1/week). IndiGo will continue to operate 4 weekly flights to Dubai. SpiceJet too is eying resuming flights to Dubai in the winter.