Airlines after Gonu

Times News Service

MUSCAT –

Indian Airlines has pressed into service additional aircraft to clear the backlog of more than 1000 passengers following the temporary closure of Seeb International Airport due to Tropical Cyclone Gonu.

Additional flights were deployed to Calicut, Kochi and Mumbai which included one wide-bodied aircraft. These flights are known as ferry flights as they come empty from India.

Top officials of Indian have arrived in Muscat to coordinate the airlifting of these passengers who are mostly South-India bound. The officials included Abhay Pathak, Regional Manager, Gulf; and Rajender Minhas, manager (marketing) Gulf.

“By tomorrow we will clear the rush of the passengers and stabilise our flight schedules,” Abhay Pathak, Regional Manager, Gulf, Indian Airlines, told the Times of Oman.

“Since this is the peak season, we had to deploy additional flights to reach the passengers to their destinations,” Pathak said.

Aditya Mathur, country manager, Oman, said that Indian operates 20 flights per week to the Indian subcontinent, out of which 11 flights are to the south and therefore additional flights had to be deployed to clear the backlog.

“We request passengers to cooperate in this situation and contact our office for any assistance,” Mathur said.

Most other airlines operating from Muscat have also resumed their operations in full swing.

The Seeb International Airport was shut down when Tropical Cyclone Gonu struck the coasts of Oman and was opened only on Friday morning.

Expatriate families who were about to leave on their annual vacation were hemmed in their homes by the storm and the cancellation of the flights.

Expats mainly from the Indian subcontinent were hit because the schools were closed and they lost out on two to three precious days of their holidays.

Oman Air, the Sultanate’s national carrier, had activated its emergency response team to take stock of the situation in view of the cyclone.

“We were following the developments of the cyclone in close coordination with the directorate general of the civil aviation and meteorology had stopped flights to Muscat on June 5 itself,” said Usama Karim Ahmed Al Haremi, public relations department manager, of Oman Air.

“We operated our flights to Kuwait and Beirut from Dubai when Seeb airport was closed and passengers in Muscat were provided accommodation. But from Friday (June 8) we are back to normal flight schedules,” Usama said.

Other airlines too suffered disruptions in their flight schedules, especially those operating to the Indian sub-continent.

Mrs Pancharatnam, country manager of Air India said: “We were able to operate our Salalah flight as usual last Wednesday (June 6) but had to cancel our flights from Muscat as the airport was closed due to the cyclone. We made arrangements for our passengers who came from distant places and were able to accommodate most of the passengers on the Saturday flights.”

“But there are some passengers who could not contact us due to communications failure. Such people have come to us for rebooking of their flights,” she said.

Gulf Air officials said that the airline has resumed flight operations into Oman. The flights were cancelled due to closure of the Seeb International Airport in Muscat as a result of the cyclone.

Passengers are advised to contact their local Gulf Air offices or travel agents for further details.

Gulf Air’s Oman-based World Wide Call Centre has resumed operations from yesterday.

The Call Centre, which is located in Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM), temporarily ceased its operations after Tropical Cyclone Gonu caused heavy floods leading to disruptions in communications.

A representative of Turkish airlines said that two flights were cancelled on Thursday and Friday due to the cyclone and now they will be sent on the Monday early morning flight.

“As most our passengers are Turkish people, we have not felt any pressure on our operations,” a Turkish airline official said.

Other prominent airlines officials operating out of Muscat could not be reached for comments.