The Kerala Association of Travel Agents has urged the Union Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi to ensure that the headquarters of Air India Express (AIE), the low-cost arm of Air India, starts functioning in Kochi.

The headquarters that was shifted from Mumbai to Kochi and inaugurated by Mr. Ravi in February last had not started functioning even after 10 months. Furniture and computers purchased for the AIE headquarters were kept in a room due to space constraint, association president K.V. Muralidharan and general secretary M.P. Kunju said in a statement.

Only the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Manager, and the Public Relations Officer of Air India were functioning from the AIE headquarters in Kochi, they said. The association also objected to the cancellation of 300-odd flights from Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, and Kozhikode to the Gulf countries in the last three months.