Bajpe: Air India along with some several other flight operators have agreed to begin the operations of new flights to destinations like New Delhi, Goa, Bengaluru and Pune.

This comes after many ideas and opinions from the passengers and experts were collected after which the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) authorities along with Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel kept forth some opinions in front of Air India.

Recently minister for aviation Suresh Prabhu visited the city and assured MIA officials that he will hold a meeting with the concerned officials at New Delhi and discuss the ways and means to start up the new additional flights to new destinations from MIA and to improve the overall status of the airport including its infrastructure.

Accordingly, the meeting was held at New Delhi on Thursday Dec 20th. The meeting included the officials of Indigo, Air India, Spice Jet along with DK MP Nalin and this was chaired by the joint secretary of the union government. During the meeting it was decided to start four to five new services from MIA very shortly.

Expressing his thoughts after the meeting, the MP said that he was satisfied with the decisions taken and that the new services will be started soon. He informed that Air India has agreed to start the new services between the city and Kolkata. The airliner has also agreed to immediately begin new flights between Mangaluru-New Delhi via Bengaluru and between Mangaluru-Bengaluru.

Indi Go has informed that it will be starting flights between Mangaluru-Bengaluru and Mangaluru-Pune and is also requesting permission to start flights from the city to Trivandrum and Goa. Meanwhile, Spice Jet has agreed to start new flights to Mumbai and Bengaluru, he added.

The long standing demand of on changing the flight timings of the air India Express Mangaluru-Kuwait flight by the people of Karavali in the Gulf was also discussed during the meeting. But changing the time schedule has to be decided on the international level. For this, the permission of the flight operating company in Kuwait is also required. Therefore, talks will be held soon with the officials there and action will be taken to change the timings to the convenience of the Karavli people, assure Air India officials, informed MP Nalin Kumar Kateel.