Mangaluru (The Hindu): IndiGo will commence flight operations to Bengaluru and Mumbai from Mangaluru from May 1.

As of now, only Air India, Jet Airways, and Spice Jet operate domestic services from Mangaluru.

Air Pegasus, which had introduced a flight to Bengaluru, withdrew its service about six months ago.

In the Mangaluru-Bengaluru sector, IndiGo will become the early flight to arrive from Bengaluru at 6.30 a.m. from May. As the flight will depart from Bengaluru at 5.30 a.m., it will provide for an early morning connectivity between the two cities. Further, passengers departing from here will reach Bengaluru at 7.55 a.m.

Director of Mangaluru International Airport J.T. Radhakrishna told The Hindu that the Airports Authority of India has already allotted space for the airlines in the terminal building.

Space has been allotted for its ticketing office, back office, and cargo handling, he said. It will operate two flights to Bengaluru and a flight to Mumbai, Mr. Radhakrishna added.

The flights to Bengaluru will depart at 7 a.m. and 4.20 p.m. They will arrive from Bengaluru at 6.30 a.m. and 3.50 p.m.

In the Mangaluru-Mumbai sector, the flight will take off from Mangaluru at 12.05 p.m. and arrive from Mumbai at 11.30 a.m. The domestic traffic between Mangaluru and Bengaluru has been hit since February 19 owing to the closure of runway at Bengaluru airport between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. for runway development works.

Jet Airways has cancelled its three flights to Bengaluru (at 11.30 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4.30 p.m.) since then. The closure of the runway at Bengaluru has hit the domestic passenger traffic at other airports too. The work is scheduled to be completed on April 30.