Kochi airport update: Flight operations suspended till Monday; Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Vistara cancel flights

Unending torrential rain has made the Kerala flood situation worsen. Till now, 70 people have lost their lives and various transportation services in the state have come to a halt including Kochi airport, metro, bus services, and Southern Railways.

Unending torrential rain has made the Kerala flood situation worsen. Till now, 70 people have lost their lives and various transportation services in the state have come to a halt including Kochi airport, metro, bus services, and Southern Railways.

Domestic carriers such as Air India, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara, and some international airlines announced cancellation and diversion of flights as the state continued to reel under the worst flood since 1961 that has displaced thousands. The flight operations in Kochi Airport suspended till Monday.

The airlines said penalties on the change in date or cancellation on all confirmed tickets have been waived off. Air India informed the diversion of international flights to cities such as Mumbai, Coimbatore and Trivandrum from Jeddhar, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

It said that flights from Mumbai, Delhi, Trivandrum, and Bengaluru have been held up at the respective places.

In 14 districts, a red alert has been issued and the Indian Navy has deployed 21 rescue and diving teams with inflatable Gemini boats.

With 25 deaths reported yesterday, the death toll has mounted to 70 till now. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the flood situation in the state. Modi told him that the Centre stood firmly behind Kerala and was ready to provide any assistance.

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As heavy rains are expected to continue for some days now, Chief Minister Vijayan has warned that the situation will worsen. he also said that over 1.5 lakh people have been lodged in relief camps across the state.

The state government had to release excess water from 35 of the state’s 39 dams, including Mullaperiyar dam, and that has compounded the crisis.

#FlyAI :#UPDATE #airindia In view of suspension of operations at @KochiAirport , penalties on no-show, date/flight change or cancellations on all confirmed tickets to and from Cochin are waived off. Pax may contact #airindia call centre or #airindia website. pic.twitter.com/LB6IDCmng6

— Air India (@airindiain) August 15, 2018

Read Full statement by DGCA

24x7 Control Room set up at DGCA Hqrs, New Delhi to address issues due to suspension of flight operations to /from Cochin Airport

A Control Room has been set up at DGCA Hqrs., New Delhi, which is beingmanned 24X7 since 15th August, 2018 night to address issues due to suspension of flight operations to /from Cochin airports.Scheduled flights of the domestic airlines to/from Trivandrum, Calicut airportfrom 16th August 2018 have been monitored throughIntegrated OperationalControl Centre (IOCC) of the airlines.

The control room can be reached through the following DGCA personnel:

1. Mr. A.X. Joseph, Dy. Dir.: +91-9871007874

2. Mr. Atul Maindola, Dy. Dir.: +91-9999069074

3. Mr. Kaushik Mukhopadhyay, Dy.Dir.: +91-8586094546

4. Mr. Brijesh Kumar Singh, Ae.O.: +91-9717307448

5. Mr. EkshwakuNandan Srivastava, Ae.O: +91-9990474145

The control room received the following queries from the public:

Re-scheduling status of flights, which was addressed after referring to therevised schedule submitted by the airlines for 16th August, 2018.

High fare especially on Delhi –Trivandrum sector. Concerned airlines wereadvised to keep a check on the fare and cap the maximum fare on Delhi-Trivandrum sector to INR 10,000/-. Airlines have also been advised to checkthe fares on otherflights going to Trivandrum and Calicut.

The control room has spoken to Cochin airport for latest update on Cochinweather. It has been informed that water level inside the airport continue to riseand heavy rain is predicted till Saturday i.e. 18 August, 2018.

Due to heavy rains in Kerala, operations to/from Cochin airport have been suspendedfrom 15-18 Aug 2018 on account of water rising in the operational area.However, Trivandrum and Calicut airports are available for scheduled operations. Forinternational operations, both immigration and customs facilities are available 24x7 atthese airports. Trivandrum airport can also accommodate wide body aircraft.

In view of the above and to cater for the stranded passengers, scheduleddomesticairlines have been advised to reschedule their flights to/from Cochin to Trivandrumand Calicut airports till such time the situation at Cochin airport returns to normal.Scheduled domestic airlines have also been advised to operate relief flights toTrivandrum/Calicut for passengers of diverted flights, who have landed at Bangalore,Coimbatore and Chennai on 15 Aug 2018 morning instead of Cochin.

All scheduled domestic airlines have been advised to ensure that airfares forflightsto/from Trivandrum and Calicut airports in Kerala are kept at optimal levelproportionate to sector distance so that travelling public is not inconvenienced. Flights of foreign airlines viz. AirArabia, Emirates, Etihad, Fly Dubai, Jazeera, OmanAir, Qatar, Saudia Airlines and Srilankan have been rescheduled for Trivandrumairport.

Foreign airlines viz. Air Asia Berhad, Gulf Air, Kuwait Airlines, Malindo, Scoot, Silk Airand Thai Air Asia have suspended their flights to/from Cochin.Passengers may also reach to the airlines at following contact numbers:

Domestic Airlines

Air India & +911149637728/+911149637693/+911149637714

Air India Express

Air Asia +918046676713

Air Vistara +919899451962

Go Air +912267420154/+912267420156

IndiGo +919560049400/+911246674040

Jet Airways +912266075545

Spicejet +911243913933

Foreign Airlines

Oman Air +919846243130/+918594013197

Saudi Arabian +914844028901