Mysuru: Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, which launched its flight services in September 2015 have decided to discontinue services from Mysuru’s Mandakalli airport due to low occupancy. After several demands from the public, government had started the air service for Mysuru.
Three airlines have stopped flying. Mysoreans dream came true when Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher airlines started a service in 2010 October which operated from Mysuru to Bangaluru and Chennai. However due to huge loss, the service was stopped. In 2013, Spice Jet came forward to provide air connectivity from Mysuru to Bengaluru. But they too stopped their services due to poor occupancy. In 2015 September Alliance Air had started a service under pressure from the public and mainly to cater to the dasara tourist traffic.
The airport is 10km away from Mysuru at a place called Mandakalli. Hence most of the people call it Mandakalli airport instead Mysuru airport. In 1947 itself the then king had allotted over 168 acres of land for the airport. In 1940 an air service was started during Dasara.
In 2005, the Airport Authority of India(AAI) and state government signed an MOU to start services after the expansion of the runway. Even though work commenced, it got delayed. Finally in 2010 May, the then chief minister Yeddyurappa inaugurated the service, but during that time, no private company came forward to take up the service.
