AI Express' 1st Doha flight to Mangalore kicks off

Dubai, Mar 25: The inaugural flight of budget airline Air-India Express today took off from Qatar's Doha International Airport with nearly 50 per cent of the seats allotted to Qatar remaining vacant.

The flight IX814 is scheduled to arrive at Mangalore via Bahrain at 2150 hrs. It left Doha at 1345 hrs this afternoon.

Air-India sources told The Peninsula that against Qatar's allotted quota of 80 seats, 40 seats have already been booked.

The official termed the response "encouraging".

''In fact, the formal announcement regarding the booking came on March 20. However, within the next three days, almost 50 per cent of the seats have been booked. This is quite an encouraging response. We could have filled the remaining seats if had started booking a couple of days back,'' said a senior Air-India official.

Mumbai, Kozhikode, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram are the other destinations where Air-India Express services are being offered.

Bookings for these destinations have already started pouring in. Kerala and Mangalore are the most sought after destinations.

The response to Mumbai is yet to pick up, he said.

To begin with, there will be 10 flights a week-four each to Mumbai and Kerala plus two to Mangalore. Air-India has plans to operate one more flight to Kochi on Thursdays by the end of April.

The Mangalore flight will be operated on Sundays and Tuesdays.

The Mumbai flights are on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The Kochi flights are on Sundays (via Kozhikode), Mondays (via Thiruvananthapuram), Wednesdays (via Kozhikode) and on Fridays (via Kozhikode).

UNI