(FE)
Air India has outlined plans to temporarily halt some international flights following the deadly Ahmedabad plane crash. The domestic carrier will see a 15% reduction in flights operated with widebody planes from June 21 to July 15. CEO Campbell Wilson said the decision was taken to have more aircraft on hand to handle “any unexpected issues”. Air India has indicated that affected passengers will be offered complimentary rescheduling or refunds.
The temporary reduction in services will apply to Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft — primarily from routes starting in Delhi. Air India said the reductions arise from the decision to voluntary undertake enhanced pre-flight safety checks, as well as accommodate additional flight durations arising from airspace closures in the Middle East.
“Air India apologises to the passengers affected by these curtailments, and is proactively contacting affected passengers to offer re-accommodation on alternative flights, complimentary rescheduling or full refunds as per their preference,” it added.
Routes suspended till July 15
- Delhi to Nairobi 4x weekly flights
- Amritsar to London (Gatwick) 3x weekly flights
- Goa (Mopa) to London (Gatwick) 3x weekly flights
Routes with reduced frequency till July 15
- Delhi to Toronto – Reduced from 13x weekly to 7x weekly
- Delhi to Vancouver – Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
- Delhi to San Francisco – Reduced from 10x weekly to 7x weekly
- Delhi to Chicago – Reduced from 7x weekly to 3x weekly
- Delhi to Washington (Dulles) – Reduced from 5x weekly to 3x weekly
- Delhi to London (Heathrow) – Reduced from 24x weekly to 22x weekly
- Bengaluru to London (Heathrow) – Reduced from 7x weekly to 6x weekly
- Amritsar to Birmingham and Delhi to Birmingham – Reduced from 3x weekly to 2x weekly
- Delhi to Paris – Reduced from 14x weekly to 12x weekly
- Delhi to Milan – Reduced from 7x weekly to 4x weekly
- Delhi to Copenhagen – Reduced from 5x weekly to 3x weekly
- Delhi to Vienna – Reduced from 4x weekly to 3x weekly
- Delhi to Amsterdam – Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
- Australia – Delhi-Melbourne – Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
- Delhi to Sydney: Reduced from 7x weekly to 5x weekly
- Far East- Delhi-Tokyo (Haneda) – Reduced from 7x weekly to 6x weekly
- Delhi to Seoul (Incheon) – Reduced from 5x weekly to 4x weekly
The domestic carrier had undertaken an extensive safety inspection over the past few days and cancelled dozens of Dreamliner flights due to technical or operational issues. Flight AI 171 had crashed into a medical college students’ hostel minutes after take-off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel airport last week — killing 241 passengers and 29 people on the ground. Both the Digital Flight Data Recorder and the Cockpit Voice Recorder have been recovered from the crash site and a multi-disciplinary team from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is currently probing the matter.
