3rd Covid wave brings down flyer numbers in Mysuru

Shilpa P | NT

Mysuru: Most flights from Mysuru are usually packed on normal days. Following the onset of the third wave of Covid-19 in January this year, the occupancy of flights leaving the city has dropped to less than 50 percent.

At present, Alliance Air is operating flights between here and Bengaluru and Kochi on all seven days of the week at the Mandakalli airport. They are operating flights from here to Goa and Hyderabad on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Indigo is operating flights from here to Hyderabad on all days of the week except Monday and Friday. Indigo is also operating flights from here to Chennai every Saturday, Sunday and Thursday. These flights are being operated under the Udan (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) regional connectivity scheme of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Sources at the Mysuru airport told News Trail that during the first and second waves of Covid, the occupancy of flights had reduced to 20-50 per cent. But during October, November and December last year, the occupancy of flights became normal and it went up to 100 per cent. Further, after the onset of third wave from January this year, the occupancy of flights has dropped to below 50 per cent, and at times goes further down to 20-30 per cent, they said.

ent, they said. They added that from Mysuru, it just takes one hour to travel to Kochi or Bengaluru, one hour and forty minutes to fly to Hyderabad, one hour and forty-five minutes to travel to Chennai and one hour and thirty minutes to travel to Goa. Also, since the airport is close to the city, and there is not much of traffic, it takes 15 to 20 minutes to reach the airport from the heart of the city.

“Since it is comfortable, convenient, time saving and the cost of flight tickets is also economical, there is a huge demand for flights from Mysuru generally during normal days as the city is a major tourism destination as also because it has 26,000 small scale industries, 160 export industries, 135 medium and large industries, and 80 software industries. The city is second only to Bengaluru in terms of business investments in the state. But since people are now avoiding travel due to the pandemic scare as also travel restrictions, the flights are seeing lesser occupancy,” airport authorities said. Mysuru Hotel Owners’ Association chief C Narayangowda said, “In Mysuru, while there are 415 hotels with 10,300 rooms the occupancy has dropped to around 30 per cent on all days of the week as people are still avoiding travelling due to the fear of Covid. Those coming from other states either for tourism or business make up just 10 per cent. The main interstate travellers are from Kerala, Tamil Nandu and Andra Pradesh. Generally, the occupancy of hotel rooms in Mysuru is 50-60 per cent during weekdays and 70-80 per cent during weekends. Of these 40 per cent during week days, and 50 per cent during weekends are from other states.”