Air India’s decision to reduce flights in light of enhanced pre-flight safety checks will result in cutbacks of at least 135 international flights between June 21 and July 15.
The temporary reduction in services, which were to be operated by Boeing 787 and Boeing 777, will be a mix of total suspension of routes and reduced frequency on certain routes.
“The reductions arise from the decision to voluntarily undertake enhanced pre-flight safety checks, as well as accommodate additional flight durations arising from airspace closures in the Middle East (West Asia). The objective is to restore schedule stability and minimise last-minute inconvenience to passengers,” Air India said in a statement.
Air India will try to accommodate passengers on alternate flights or give them the choice for rescheduling their travel or provide full refund of the ticket cost.
Routes that are suspended are Delhi-Nairobi, Amritsar-London and Goa (Mopa)-London (Gatwick). Routes with reduced frequency are to North America, Europe, Australia and Far-East. Except for two (Bengaluru and Amritsar), all these flights with reduced frequency are on routes connecting Delhi. No Mumbai flights are affected by this change.
On June 18, the airline said that disruptions in its international operations since June 13 had led to a total of 83 cancellations. It also decided to reduce its international services on widebody aircraft by 15% for the next few weeks.