New Riyadh Flight Connects Kerala Capital To Saudi Arabia
Air India Express, the international budget carrier owned by Air India, has launched a new non-stop flight connecting Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala, with Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The new service was inaugurated on September 9th, ahead of the Onam festival in Kerala, in order to benefit the thousands of Keralite expatriates working and living in Saudi Arabia.
The newflight, numbered IX521, will operate every Monday on the Thiruvananthapuram to Riyadh route. It will depart from Thiruvananthapuram International Airport at 7:55pm and reach King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh at 10:40pm. On the return journey, Flight IX522 will leave Riyadh at 11:20pm the same day and arrive in Thiruvananthapuram at 7:30am on Tuesday morning.
This provides Keralites in Riyadh with a direct airlink to their home state for the first time. Previously, the only connection was via Dammam in Eastern Province, requiring time-consuming transfers. The new flight will be patronized by Malayali expat workers from both Kerala and neighbouring Tamil Nadu, according to officials. It fulfils a longstanding demand of the large Keralite diaspora population in the Kingdom to have a non-stop service linking their place of work Riyadh with their hometown Thiruvananthapuram.
The launch marks an Onam gift for the Gulf-based Malayali community from Air India Express. It has cemented the national career's presence on the strategically important India-GCC aviation routes.
