Kochi-London flight suspension a setback for CIAL

Kochi: The suspension of the Kochi-London direct flight, introduced in August, has turned out to be a setback for Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), which is receiving a lot of enquiries about the resumption of the service.

The service was popular, and the Kochi-London flights were almost filled to capacity, airport sources said. The direct London services were introduced from Kochi along with other cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi, and the service from Kochi was in huge demand, they added. Of the 250 seats, bookings were in the range of 220 seats.

However, the services were suspended following the detection of the new COVID-19 variant in the United Kingdom. Though the Civil Aviation Ministry has permitted relaunch of the services from three cities Kochi was not included in the list, the sources said.

The popularity of the Kochi-London service had resulted in Air India increasing the number of flights from twice weekly to thrice in October.