A-I to operate US flights as per normal schedule

Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai, Sept 12: Even as the terrorist attack in the US plunged the global aviation sector into disarray, Air-India has announced that flights to the US would operate as per their normal schedule on Thursday subject to opening of the US air space.

A final decision in this regard will, however, be known around 2300 hours on Wednesday night, an Air-India release said. Earlier, Air-India had cancelled its flight to New York on Wednesday while its Tuesday flight to New York and Chicago has been flown back to London following the closure of the respective airports. The two aircraft to New York and Chicago were carrying 268 passengers, a large number of whom were headed for London.

One of the two aircraft, which had been recalled to London on Tuesday is on a stand-by at London awaiting the opening of US airspace. This aircraft will operate either to New York or Chicago depending on which airport is opened first by US authorities to carry US-bound passengers presently in London, the release said.

Meanwhile, the other aircraft of Air-India has departed from London, carrying passengers booked ex-London for Mumbai in the afternoon and is expected to arrive in Mumbai on Thursday morning at 1.10 am, the release said. With the exception of the flights headed for the US being cancelled due to the closure of the US airspace, all other flights from India were on schedule. The only exception were US-based airlines which were grounded world over and were unable to carry their routine flights even to destinations other than US.

Prominent among such airlines were United Airlines which flies daily to London and Hong Kong from New Delhi. German airline Lufthansa had to cancel its flights to the US, while Cathay Pacific cancelled flights to US and Canada. There were no disruptions in flights from India to other destinations and all flights were as per schedule. AIR cargo movement into US, Canada and South American countries came to a standstill, albeit temporarily. Fedex (Federal Express) was unable to operate its westbound flight on Tuesday night, sources said. Other courier companies too are waiting for the US air space to open up for despatch their cargo.

A Reuters report quoted Federal Express, the world’s No 1 air-Express package shipper, saying that shipments to and from the United States were likely to be delayed from 24 hours to 48 hours due to the temporary suspension of flights.