Kerala floods: IndiGo to operate flights from Kochi naval base from Tuesday

No-frills airline IndiGo on Monday said it would operate flights from the Kochi naval base from Tuesday, as domestic carriers look to provide more air connectivity to flood-ravaged Kerala. 

A senior official at the civil aviation ministry said that Jet Airways is also planning to start operations from the naval base.

Alliance Air, part of Air India group, on Monday started operations from the naval base. It is being used for commercial flights as Cochin International Airport is shut till August 26 due to flooding of the runway. 
 

In a statement on Monday, IndiGo said it would continue to operate eight round-trip relief flights from Kozhikode, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Trivandrum. 

This would be in addition to "flying three daily additional relief flights (round trip) from Kochi naval base effective August 21, 2018, to August 26, 2018", it added. 
 

According to an Air India official, Alliance Air on Monday operated four flights to and from the naval base and ferried around 256 passengers.

With heavy rains pounding the state, more than 200 people have lost their lives and over 724,000 people have been displaced in the last few days due to floods and landslips.
 

Last week, aviation regulator DGCA asked scheduled domestic airlines to mount additional flights in view of the closure of the Cochin airport.