Alliance Air to operate additional flights to Lakshadweep amid Maldives row
Alliance Air operates a 70-seater aircraft to the island daily.
Amid the current dispute between India and Maldives, Alliance Air, the sole airline serving Lakshadweep, has initiated extra flights for passengers wanting to travel to the island. In a post on its official handle X Alliance Air shared the information and wrote, “Now additional flight. @PMOIndia @Officejmscindia @JM_Scindia.”
Alliance Air operates a 70-seater aircraft to the island daily. The airline is running in total capacity and has sold out all of its tickets till March, an official associated with Alliance Air has said. Speaking with regard to the additional flights the official said that the flights would operate two days a week, that is, on Sunday and Wednesday.
The airline runs flights between Kochi in Kerala and Agatti island in Lakshadweep.
"We are getting lots of queries on phone and social media regarding tickets. Following to the huge demand for tickets, an additional flight has been added to the route. If required frequency of the flight will be increased," the official said.
In an annual meeting held recently Spice Jet also informed that it would have exclusive rights under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) for Lakshadweep and that will soon launch flights to the island. Travel portals have also reported a record number of queries for Lakshadweep in recent times.
MakeMyTrip, the online travel company, reported a remarkable 3400% increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep on Monday. This followed Prime Minister Modi's recent visit to the union territory.
"NewsFlash: We have observed a 3400% increase in on-platform searches for Lakshadweep ever since Honorable PM’s visit," the company said in a post on X. After recording whopping queries and increased online interest about Indian beaches the company also announced the 'Beaches of India' campaign. Through this campaign the company puts forth several discounts in travel packages encouraging people to explore the beaches in the country.