KOCHI: As the curbs on international travel are being relaxed for passengers from India, airlines resumed operations of passenger flights from Kochi airport to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
The move comes after that country announced its new travel protocol. This is the first commercial operation to Saudi Arabia since the Covid outbreak. Saudi Arabia’s national carrier Saudia has scheduled seven departure services from Kochi till September 30.
The first one left with 395 passengers on board. The Kochi airport handled 6,069 international passengers on Sunday. Out of that, 4,131 were departing passengers. Saudia has scheduled three more flights for the week. Indigo is slated to commence departure operations to Saudi on September 2. Kochi Airport Managing director S Suhas said the airport has initiated discussions with international carriers to start more services in the sector.