By Team Mangalorean - Dubai
Photographs: Anil Alva & Pascal Pinto for Mangalorean.com

Dubai Oct 3: The maiden International flight to Mangalore Air India Express took off as scheduled at 13:10 hrs local time on October 3rd 2006 from Dubai International Airport.

The mood was celebratory and rightfully so.  This was a long awaited dream for all Mangaloreans.  Officials from the Ministry of Aviation, NRI’s and the general public who had come to cheer off the passengers all congregated at the airport in a spirit of oneness and elation.

Prior to this there had been a press conference with business tycoons Abdul Wahad and B.R. Shetty and members from the Dubai civil aviation authorities.

Captain Rahul Sahani who had manned the Boeing 737-800 from Delhi-Amritsar-Dubai competently taxied the plane out of the runway and took to the skies along with his Delhi based crew to land in a few hours at Mangalore International Airport. B.R. Shetty in his address made a general mention of all the people who had strived to make this project a success.