New international flight from KIA to Dubai

While 2020 turned one of the worst years for civil aviation, there is something to cheer about. From Sunday, a new international airline will be operated to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), making it one of the first to start services in the Covdi-19 era.

Flydubai, the UAE government-owned budget carrier, has started daily flights services between Dubai and Bengaluru. The inaugural flight took off from the Dubai International Airport at 7 am and arrived at KIA at 12.30 pm, on return the flight left Bengaluru at 1.30 pm. Flight services between India and Dubai, like with other nations, were suspended since March 23, however, from July onwards, India has been allowing flight operations between the two countries under the air bubble arrangement. Among the air bubble flights, India operated the maximum number of flights to the UAE.

Apart from that, Dubai is also the most travelled destination from Bengaluru. Before shutting down of the international flights in March, data shows that passengers from Bengaluru travelled to UAE more than any other country.

In 2020, many new airlines and new routes were scheduled to commence services on the international sector, however, they were delayed or postponed due to the ongoing pandemic. Among them were the daily flights between Bengaluru and Narita (Tokyo) scheduled to commence on March 29, along with direct flights between Bengaluru-Munich and between Bengaluru and Seattle, operated by Lufthansa and American Airlinesrespectively. All three have been postponed to next year.