Trichy-Dubai flight to resume today after 50 days

Trichy: After 50 days, Trichy International Airport will resume direct flight operations to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from Sunday (April 19). The Air India Express daily service is expected to continue till the end of this month. All UAE-bound flights from Trichy were suspended since Feb 28, due to the conflict in West Asia. The resumption of daily services will bring the much-needed relief to fliers and exporters.Trichy airport sources said that the Air India Express flight will leave Dubai airport by 3.55pm (IST) and land at Trichy airport by 10pm. In return, the flight will leave Trichy by 12.10pm and land at Dubai airport by 2.55pm. "Only Dubai-Trichy flight service has resumed. Daily services from Trichy to other destinations in the UAE, such as Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, have not resumed," S S Raju, airport director, said. Without the direct service, frequent flyers from Trichy to Dubai were relying on Chennai and Colombo airports to reach their destinations in the Gulf countries. From May 1, a new flight schedule is expected to come into effect. For the past two months, cancellation of Gulf-bound flights significantly impacted the passenger handling capacity of the airport here and affected the business of exporters selling vegetables, fruits and flowers to the UAE markets. "We were waiting for the flight services to resume. Since there is a huge demand in Dubai for our vegetables, the daily service will be of great use. In the absence of the direct Trichy-Dubai flight, we have been exporting vegetables via Chennai airport," V Anand, a vegetable exporter, said.