The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has expressed concern over the spate of cancellations of the Air India Express flights to Kuala Lumpur from Tiruchi this month and has appealed to the airline management and the Civil Aviation Minister to ensure that the flights were operated without any disruption in schedule.

The airline had recently announced cancellation of flights for five days between November 1 and 13 on the Tiruchi-Kuala Lumpur sector citing ‘crew problems' – in an apparent reference to shortage of pilots.

Contending that Tiruchi was one of the “high profile stations” in terms of passenger traffic to destinations in the Gulf and South East Asia, M.S.Paramasivam, chairman, TAAI, South Tamil Nadu Chapter, said that the frequent cancellation of the flights to Kuala Lumpur by Air India Express has caused much hardship to the labourers travelling regularly on the sector as the airline offered competitive fares. The cancellation has left the passengers with no option but to fly with one of the foreign carriers to Kuala Lumpur.

Travel industry representatives also express apprehension that more flights on the sector could be cancelled in the coming days as per a report in the Hindu by S. Ganesan

“We understand that more flights to Kuala Lumpur from here are likely to be cancelled up to February by the airline. This will hamper the growth of the city in terms of passenger movement and tourism promotion,” Mr.Paramasivam said.

Such mass cancellation of flights would only help foreign carriers and the national carrier could lose the market. In fact, the efforts made by the airline to promote the sector and Tiruchi as a major destination would go in vain if corrective action was not taken immediately and flights restored. Ever since the launch of the Air India Express service in March 2007, the number of flights operated by the airline from has increased from six to 34 flights a week. This shows that the airline has substantial patronage and the station has shown considerable market growth.

“We are surprised and shocked over the unilateral decision of the national carrier to cancel flights on a route that has been doing extremely well,” he said. Some of the travel agents feel that when it comes to operation of services and restoration of cancelled flights by the airline Tiruchi was being accorded step-motherly treatment in comparison to Kerala.

With the airline also cancelling some its flights on the Tiruchi–Chennai sector, passengers were being forced to depend on private carriers, paying a higher fare, Mr.Paramasivam said.

The TAAI, he said, has sent representations to the Civil Aviation Minister, the chairman and managing director of Air India seeking the operation of flights from Tiruchi without further cancellation.