Air India, Air India Express to operate 48 flights to and from West Asia on March 16
Gurugram, March 16
Air India and Air India Express will together operate 48 scheduled and non-scheduled flights to and from the West Asia region on March 16, the airline said.
According to a press release, the two carriers will continue their scheduled operations to Jeddah and Muscat on March 16, including a total of 10 flights between India and Jeddah. Air India will operate one return service each from Delhi and Mumbai, while Air India Express will operate one flight each from Bengaluru, Kozhikode and Mangalore.
Additionally, Air India Express will operate 12 scheduled flights to and from Muscat, with one service each from Delhi, Kannur, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram and two services from Kochi.
In addition to the scheduled services, Air India and Air India Express will also operate a total of 26 non-scheduled flights to and from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, subject to the availability of slots and other prevailing conditions at the departure stations at the time.
These flights are being operated with the requisite permissions from the relevant Indian and local regulatory authorities.
All Air India flights to and from North America, Europe, Australia and other regions continue to operate per schedule.
"Guests booked to travel on any of the routes where Air India group's scheduled services remain temporarily suspended may conveniently rebook to a future date at no additional charge or opt for a full refund," the release said.
Air India guests are advised to raise their rebooking or cancellation requests on the airline's website.
Air India Express guests booked to travel from any station in the UAE can conveniently rebook their flights without additional charges on Air India Express' additional commercial flights operating from any UAE station to any destination in India.
"Air India and Air India Express are proactively reaching out to impacted guests using the mobile numbers registered with the airline to provide rebooking options. Guests are requested to ensure their current and active mobile numbers are updated with the airline to receive these important notifications," the release stated.
Air India group is exploring every opportunity to operate additional ad-hoc flights to and from destinations in West Asia.
— ANI
Reader Comments
Operating from Kozhikode, Mangalore, Kannur... good to see they are covering key Kerala and Karnataka airports. A lot of our people work in the Gulf. These connections are like lifelines.
The proactive communication about rebooking and refunds is a positive step. In past situations, the lack of clear info caused major headaches. Hopefully the execution on the ground matches the press release.
"Subject to availability of slots" – this is the crucial part. Announcements are fine, but the real test is whether people actually get seats. The Gulf sector is always under tremendous pressure.
It's responsible that they are keeping other long-haul routes (US, Europe) on schedule. Shows they are managing capacity well. The focus on West Asia makes sense given the passenger volume and current needs.
Good initiative, but the website for rebooking often crashes under high traffic. They should bolster their IT backend during such operational surges. The intent is right, execution needs to be seamless.
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