M.A. Yusuff Ali lands in Kochi the week of emergency food-airlift operations to the Gulf

M.A. Yusuff Ali flew from a point over the Arabian Sea to Cochin International Airport (VOCI) on June 11, 2026, a 45-minute hop in his Gulfstream G600 (T7-YMA) that touched down just before dawn.

The trip lands Yusuff Ali in his home state of Kerala the same week LuLu Group continues emergency airlift operations that have shipped more than 15,000 tonnes of food from India to Gulf markets via 34 dedicated chartered flights, per a Business Today report. The supply chain push, launched after regional conflict began disrupting West Asia transport routes on February 28, 2026, has used passenger jets converted to freighters—including a Kuwait Airways Boeing 777 that flew 50 tonnes of fresh vegetables from Cochin to Kuwait on March 25, 2026 [businesstoday.in](https://www.businesstoday.in/india/story/extremely-thankful-lulu-group-chief-hails-modi-govt-for-uninterrupted-food-exports-to-gcc-nations-522543-2026-03-26). The group also briefed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the initiative in New Delhi in late March [ndtv.com](https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/lulu-group-chairman-yusuffali-ma-briefs-pm-narendra-modi-on-uninterrupted-food-supplies-to-gulf-region-11270125).

Yusuff Ali, who holds a minority stake in Cochin International Airport, has been a regular visitor to Kerala since building LuLu from a small Abu Dhabi distribution business into a 240-plus-hypermarket retail empire. His recent flight pattern shows a Europe-and-Gulf swing in late May before this India return, typical of a chairman who oversees logistics spanning India, the GCC, and beyond.