February 6, 2006: Air India Express will operate direct flights from Mangalore to Muscat and Abu Dhabi from March 1, 2007, a change from the earlier announced schedule. However, the days of flight operations remain the same, Thursdays and Saturdays.

This is the fourth time the flight schedules have been revised. The airline had initially scheduled the launch in March 1, and then advanced it to January 18 and later to February 15. Now it has been rescheduled again to March 1.

The decision was affected after top-level meetings of Air India executives at its headquarters in Mumbai.

Air India Express executives were of the opinion that these changes in schedules were common in the aviation industry. These were due to "unforeseen circumstances".

The maiden service will fly on March 1 on Trivandrum – Abu Dhabi – Muscat – Mangalore – Abu Dhabi - Muscat - Trivandrum. The timing for Mangalore departure has been tentatively fixed at 00:01 hours (midnight) that helps in providing a three-hour gap to the airport immigration offices. This is because the Dubai flight – one of the busiest flights from the city - takes off at 9 pm from Mangalore.

Air India Express will fly four new Boeing 737-800NG aircrafts that were recently delivered to the company. The carrier has already recruited a number of foreign flight commanders and is in the process of recruiting additional first officers.

The carrier is facing shortage of staff and immigration facilities at Mangalore airport - Bajpe Airport.

The online booking for the services will open by the first week of February for the services.

Separately, the carrier intends to operate a Cochin–Mangalore–Doha–Bahrain service from March 25 and April 1, 2007. The services would be operated on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Since the flight will be operating between two domestic sectors, the carrier has allotted 50 per cent of the seats for both Cochin and Mangalore.

By March 25, Air India Express will operate six flights between Dubai and Mangalore on all the days, except Tuesdays. However, the airline will maintain the present timings.

Air India Express is also considering the potential of operating a service on Kuwait–Mangalore sector, and is likely to launch the services by end of April 2007. Mangalore Airport will handle 12 Air India Express International flights per week.