#FlyFromIXE campaign handled by young aviation enthusiasts from Namma Kudla takes off

MANGALURU: The 12-hour Twitter campaign – #FlyFromIXE that a teenager handled from 6am on Tuesday created ripples on the microblogging social networking site. Just as in the run up to the event, the campaign per se saw Twitteratti come up with suggestions on how best the potential of Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) could be tapped. While most tweets, re-tweets were positive, there were odd voices of murmur about service at MIA too.
Prasad (name changed on request), who described himself and the group that managed the campaign as ‘Young Aviation Enthusiasts from Mangaluru’ told TOI that the day’s campaign created the awareness that he hoped it would. “But for an endorsement from former minister Pramod Madhwaraj, the lack of response from other elected representatives from the region was a dampener,” he said, adding scope of the campaign will be continued.
“We want #FlyFromIXE to trend and the WhatsApp group #FlyFromIXE started for this will continue to be the sounding board on ideas to take it forward,” he said. The sole idea is to promote MIA that has given this coastal city the much needed air connectivity in addition to rail, road and sea connectivity it already has. “We want more airlines operating to IXE (station code for MIA) and better facilities for passengers here,” Prasad said.
Opinions of Twitterati on the campaign that invariably tagged union civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri and the ministry through its handle @MoCA_GoI came up with suggestions on how the potential of MIA could be tapped fully. A few Twitter users aware of the fact that MIA will be handed over to Adani group on 50-year long-term lease also tagged the groups handle @AdaniOnline in an apparent bid to draw the group’s attention to issues.
A twitter user Mohammad Nasir (@nasi_sagar) drew attention of authorities to a possible reason why MIA was not a preferred airport from some. His Tweet read, “It's not Mangalore loosing it's charm it's the management and staffs rude attitude towards muslims is what making them loose, otherwise why would anybody take a longer distance to reach the same city. #FlyFromIXE.” MIA has denied this accusation vigorously in the past.
Other suggestions made include getting more parking space and allow(ing) airline companies to make their base/hubs in IXE, get international airlines and other Indian airlines to start operating from IXE, decrease VAT/TAX on fuel and upgrade the IXE look and get regional airlines operating from IXE. Thanking all for their response, Prasad said the campaign will be taken to its logical end in future and all elected representatives brought on board.