Mattannur (Kannur): International flight operations from Kannur Airport have remained suspended for a month following the ongoing conflict in the West Asian region.

Services were halted from February 28 after Iran launched attacks on Gulf countries. In the days that followed, only an Air India Express service to Muscat continued operations. That service has also been suspended for about a week now. At present, only domestic flights are operating from the airport.

The suspension of international services has led to heavy financial losses for Kannur International Airport Limited (KIAL). The airport is losing around ₹50 lakh per day. This loss is attributed to reduced income from landing and parking charges, along with user fees from aircraft.

Air India Express had earlier announced special services to Sharjah and Riyadh. These plans were later cancelled due to the escalating conflict in the region. Services to Sharjah were operated only for two days before being discontinued.

A revised summer schedule set to begin from March 29 includes more services from Kannur Airport. However, these operations are expected to resume only after the situation in West Asia stabilises. Routes to Kuwait, Bahrain and Jeddah, which were removed from the airline’s winter schedule, have been reintroduced in the new plan.

On the domestic front, IndiGo is set to launch a new service to Navi Mumbai from March 30.

Passenger traffic at the airport had already declined in February. Data from airport authorities show that 99,634 passengers travelled through Kannur during the month. Previously, international passenger numbers alone had crossed one lakh. With overseas services still suspended, a further drop in passenger traffic is expected in March.