Air India (AI) and its low cost carrier Air India Express (AIE) will operate 56 more flights from Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode and Mangalore airports to the Middle East from Saturday.

This is to bring down the airfares that had gone up and to restore the services that were curtailed during the 58-day strike by pilots of the national carrier owing allegiance to the Indian Pilot’s Guild.

The move was aimed at clearing the rush of the Non-resident Keralites working in the Middle East and planning to come home during Ramzan and Onam, an AI spokesman told The Hindu.

Apart from the additional flights, the authorities were working on crew and route management schedules so that the flight schedules in Kerala and Mangalore were restored to the ‘pre-strike’ period by September 21, he said.

The move was expected to drastically bring down the airfares that had been hiked by private and foreign carriers from Middle East to Kerala. Of the 56 additional flights, 50 would be operated by AIE.

The no-frills airline’s additional flight in the Thiruvananthapuram- Dubai- Thiruvananthapuram sector would be on August 8, 15 and 13. In the Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram sector, it would be on all Saturdays from August 4 to September 15, and in the Thiruvananthapuram-Abudhabi-Thiruvananthapuram sector, it would be on August 30, the spokesman said.

From Kochi

The Kochi-Dubai-Kochi additional flights of the AIE would be on August 8, 15 and September 9, the Kochi-Abudhabi-Kochi flight on August 26, and the Kochi-Dubai-Kochi flight on August 18, he added.

From Kozhikode

In the Kozhikode-Dubai-Kozhikode sector, the AIE flights would be on August 18, 25, September 1, 8 and 14.

The flights in the Kozhikode-Doha-Kozhikode sector would be on August 26, September 2 and 9, in the Kozhikode-Kochi-Kuwait- Kochi- Kozhikode on September 5, and in the Kozhikode-Abudhabi-Kozhikode sector on August 16.

From Mangalore

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