Air India flights have been cancelled from Trivandrum to Bengaluru on Thursday to facilitate Haj operations from Kerala.

The Haj season is coinciding with the Onam week, that is August 23 to 27.

Even though flights have been cancelled in the sector, several information technology executives based in Bengaluru travelled back to their homes in Kerala in buses.

Shashi Tharoor, Congress member and Thiruvananthapuram MP, however, took to Twitter after the airline released the statement.

Stunned to learn that @airindiain has cancelled its scheduled flights from Trivandrum to Bangalore during Onam week Aug 23-27. Many had booked months in advance since Onam is the busiest travel period in Kerala. Only an airline indifferent2customers could have done such a thing!

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 9, 2018

"Commercial logic has been cast to the winds by this public sector airline. If there is a technical issue affecting availability of aircraft, Air India should have cancelled any less busy sector outside of Kerala and brought more flights in during the Onam period. Now others will!", he tweeted.

Air India has always been on top of the news for providing flights to meet the demands of the Muslim pilgrims.

In February, the government had slashed the airfares for the pilgrims by 18 from 49 percent. The reduced airfares are available on Air India, Saudia and Flynas, an air carrier based in Saudia Arabia.

Air India is required to serve pilgrims from seven embarkation points (EPs) Chennai, Goa, Mumbai, Nagpur, Varanasi, Kolkata and Srinagar.

(With inputs from PTI)

First Published:Aug 9, 2018 2:41 PM IST