Kerala: IndiGo starts services from Naval Base, Jet Airways modifies plans

With heavy rains evading Kerala for about 48 hours now, the flood-ravaged state is slowly recovering. In a respite for passengers whose travel plans have been affected, Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, had on Monday resumed flight services to Kochi from the Naval Base at Willingdon Island.

On Tuesday, IndiGo airlines has followed Alliance Air's footsteps to ferry passengers from the Naval Base. "Reviewing the current flood situation in Kerala, we will operate three daily additional relief flights to and from Kochi Naval Base effective August 21, 2018 to August 26, 2018," it informed. On Tuesday, IndiGo airlines has followed Alliance Air's footsteps to ferry passengers from the Naval Base. "Reviewing the current flood situation in Kerala, we will operate three daily additional relief flights to and from Kochi Naval Base effective August 21, 2018 to August 26, 2018," it informed. IndiGo will be having three in-bound flights to Kochi—two from Bengaluru and one from Chennai. In addition, there will be three flights from Kochi—two to Bengaluru and one to Chennai. 

The airline has also extended fee waivers for flights booked till August 31. "We’re also offering rescheduling/cancellation fee waivers for the customers travelling to/from Kochi, till August 31, 2018 for bookings made before August 20, 2018."

IndiGo also has in place a special customer support team that will be working round-the-clock to assist affected passengers and families. Customers can get their queries answered through IndiGo's Facebook page, Twitter or live chat on its website. They can also contact the airline at 9910383838 or mail to Customer.Relations@goindigo.in. 

On the other hand, Jet Airways, which had announced flights from the Kochi Naval Base from Tuesday, has deferred flying plans due to "operational reasons". For now, Jet Airways has modified its plans and will operate relief flight services between Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru. 

Jet Airways, too, has extended waiver on penalties for date change up to September 15. "Since operations at Cochin International Airport have been temporarily suspended up to 26th Aug 14:00, we've extended the waiver on penalties for date change up to 15th Sept on all confirmed tickets to & from Kochi till 26th Aug," it said.

It is expected that Cochin International Airport will resume flight services by 2pm on August 26 (Sunday). In line with this, AirAsia has informed that its international flights will fly to/from Kochi as scheduled on August 26. However, AirAsia's domestic flights will remain cancelled till further announcement. The airline will continue with its rescue flights, though.

"On 26 August 2018, AirAsia Malaysia (carrier code AK) and AirAsia Thailand (FD) will resume scheduled flights to/from Kochi, while AirAsia India (I5) flights will remain cancelled. AirAsia India will instead operate rescue flights between Bengaluru International Airport (BLR) and Trivandrum International Airport (TRV) in place of its Bengaluru-Kochi service through to 26 August 2018."

With the flood waters not sparing the Cochin International Airport Ltd, flight services at the airport were temporarily halted. As a result, most of the scheduled flights were either shifted to Kozhikode or Trivandrum airports or cancelled.