Passengers who booked tickets to Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, India, on Bahrain Air are being offered refunds after the airline announced all flights to the destination would be cancelled from tomorrow.

The contract to operate to the city, previously known as Trivandrum, expired today, chief executive officer Richard Nuttall was quoted as saying in our sister newspaper, the Gulf Daily News.

He added flights would only resume once aviation authorities gave the green light.

"The contract, which we signed last year, was valid until December but we managed to extend it until January this year," explained Nuttall.

"We are not booking any flights to Trivandrum now and both authorities, Bahrain Civil Aviation and Indian Civil Aviation, need to have a meeting to discuss this issue. It's not in our control and we are waiting to know when this meeting will take place. We can reinstate the flights only after both authorities sign a contract."

He said the airline had continued to sell tickets for travel after today because it thought the issue would be resolved.

"We issued many tickets before January 31, assuming we'd get a positive response from India," he said.

"However, we couldn't resolve the problem and are hoping for a quick response from both sides. For the time being, we are refunding money to customers who have booked tickets. We have also given them options to travel to any other city in Kerala.There are not many passengers as it's not the peak time of the year."

Bahrain Air has faced problems with Indian aviation authorities due to delays in awarding landing rights. – TradeArabia News Service