Mysuru: The
Mandakalli Airport in Mysuru finds itself, unwittingly, at the centre of a
scam. For the past few weeks,
youngsters with appointment letters have been turning up at the airport only to be informed that the documents they have are fake.
Miscreants are trapping gullible aspirants with the promise of employment with the
Airports Authority of India (AAI), which is responsible for the administration of Mandakalli Airport. Youngsters are being duped by miscreants, who are asking for money, and assuring the gullible aspirants of
jobs with
AAI by giving them fake appointment letters.
Mandakalli Airport director R Manjunath said that the youngsters returned home dejected on learning that AAI was not hiring anyone in Mysuru. “This racket is being carried out online. The miscreants are communicating with youngsters over Email. They are extracting money from the youngsters in instalments, citing various stages in the recruitment process. The youngsters learn that they have been cheated only when they approach us,” Manjunath rued.
Many of the youngsters falling prey to the scam are those rendered jobless owing to the
Covid-19 crisis. In fact, many local youngsters from Mysuru are among those who have been cheated in this racket. Manjunath, however, pointed out that a few youngsters, their suspicions aroused, had approached the airport authorities before making the payment.
Airport authorities, keen to prevent more youngsters from being duped by miscreants, said that any notification calling for applications to jobs at AAI would be published on: https://www.aai.aero/en/careers/recruitment.
Spike in passenger traffic
In the meanwhile, the Mysuru airport has registered a gradual rise in the number of passengers taking flights from the Heritage City following the easing of restrictions enforced during the
lockdown. Sources attributed this to a revival in the local economy. Data from the Airports Authority of India indicates that, the number of passengers who used the airport in May was just 489, while it rose to 3,158 in June. The ensuing months of July and August registered a decline owing to the spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in Mysuru, with just 2,795 passengers using the airport in July and 2,057 the succeeding month. The number spiked again in September (6,214) and the upward trend continued in October – 6,779.