India’s state-owned Air India Express, is withdrawing its Kuwait-Mangalore-Kochi service from its schedule starting from February 15, 2014. The same schedule is withdrawn from its summer schedule starting from April 1, 2014. The move to withdraw this service will affect thousands of Indians in Kuwait who relied on Air India Express to travel to south Indian states like Karnataka, Kerala and Goa.

The reason cited is the shortage of planes as the airline has to return the existing aircraft as the lease period has ended. 

The airline used to operate three services a week to Kochi via Mangalore. With the suspension of Mangalore service, the airline will only operate three flights to Calicut weekly, its only destination in Kerala. 

On the other side, Air India has finalized a deal to sell its five wide-body Boeing 777 aircraft to Etihad Airways by signing an agreement with the Abu Dhabi-based carrier, airline sources said today.

The move to withdraw Kuwait-Mangalore-Kochi service is a clear sign of mismanagement, thus adding burden to the thousands of travelers using the service.