At a high-level meeting chaired by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan that discussed ways to improve air connectivity from the state, Air India and other private airlines expressed their willingness to operate more domestic services from Kannur international airport (Kial). Representatives of 10 domestic and 12 international airline companies were present for the meeting that was also attended by Union civil aviation secretary R N Choubey, civil aviation joint secretary Usha Padhee and other top state government officials.

Air India Express and IndiGo expressed that their direct flight from Kannur International Airport to Kuwait will commence from March.

K. Shyamsundar, Chief Executive Officer of Air India Express, the low-cost arm of Air India that is operating international flights from Kannur to Sharjah, Abudhabi, Riyadh, and Doha, informed the meeting of that the flights to Bahrain, Kuwait and Muscat from March.

IndiGo already announced that their Kuwait service will commence in March 15th.

Direct flight from Kannur to Kuwait will be beneficial to large number of Keralites from Kannur district and surrounding area living in Kuwait.