Falling service standards and rising ticket prices – such complaints about Air India are not new. When it comes to Air India Express, which is promoted as a budget carrier, the usual response is, “the fares are cheap, so don’t expect too much.” Now, the airline seems to be preparing to erase Kerala from its service map altogether. Air India Express has decided to slash the number of international flights from Kerala, including to Gulf destinations, and also shift its headquarters from Kochi to Gurugram, Haryana.

Flights from Kerala to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Kuwait, Sharjah, Riyadh, and Jeddah- once operating up to seven services a week- will now be cut to half or even less. Some routes will be stopped completely. For example, the Dubai and Abu Dhabi services from Thiruvananthapuram, the Kuwait service from Kozhikode, and the Bahrain, Jeddah, and Kuwait services from Kannur are being fully cancelled. Services from Kozhikode to Dammam and Muscat, which had seven flights each per week, will be reduced to three. As if waiting for Air India Express to suspend or cut services, private airlines have already announced fare hikes. They wasted no time — the moment the opportunity came, they moved in to cash in.

It is not just expatriate Malayalis who are affected. Air India Express has also made sharp cuts to domestic services. Thiruvananthapuram earlier had two daily flights to Chennai, but both were suddenly cancelled, almost as if the airline decided, “no one should travel cheaply to Chennai anymore.” With that, IndiGo hiked its fares on the same route. The suspension of the Thiruvananthapuram–Dubai service now forces expatriates to rely on expensive Emirates flights. With the cancellation of Kuwait flights from Kozhikode and Kannur, travellers from the Malabar region will have no option but to go to Mangaluru to catch flights.

And what prompted such a drastic decision? In truth, nothing specific happened. Reports suggest this is part of a hidden plan to cut profitable services from Kerala and divert aircraft to North India, where flights to foreign destinations can be run at much higher fares. In response, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has lodged a protest with the Aviation Ministry, Opposition Leader VD Satheesan has sent a letter, and MP Shashi Tharoor has called the Air India Chairman to express concern. But letters and phone calls alone may not be enough. A special delegation may need to be sent to Delhi to put strong pressure on the Centre and reverse this decision, which heavily burdens Malayali travellers. If Kerala accepts this quietly, it will set a precedent where people are forced to suffer in silence every time such moves are made.