Gulf crisis: Air India adds flights to Europe & US to meet demand

NEW DELHI: With the option of mega Gulf carriers not available for now to travelers between India and the west, Air India will operate additional 78 flights to Europe, New York and a few other places between March 10 and 18. These extra flights will be between Delhi and New York, London (Heathrow), Frankfurt, Paris (CDG), Amsterdam, Zurich, Malé and Colombo. Mumbai will have additional flights to London.

AI chief commercial officer Nipun Aggarwal said: “Despite the odds, Air India continues to maintain its scheduled services to Europe and North America, sustaining connectivity to several international gateways using alternative routings that are assessed as safe for operations. We are confident that passengers in need to travel to destinations in these regions will appreciate the additional options and reliability with Air India.”

The airline’s decision comes in “response to sustained high demand for reliable travel options amid the ongoing situation in West Asia.” These extra flights will add 17,660 seats on nine routes in both directions.

International fares have skyrocketed since the Israel-Iran war broke out on Feb 28. Stranded passengers have been complaining of one-way fares of upto Rs 2-4 lakh to Europe. Gulf carriers — Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways — fly a significant number of transit passengers between India and the rest of the world.

AI’s additional flights on the European routes will operate with Boeing 787-8 and those to Malé and Colombo will be operated with Airbus A320neo aircraft. Subject to the requisite regulatory approvals, the flights to New York (JFK) will be on B777-300ER.