Air India cancels flights to Gulf sector

Dubai: Passengers have been left high and dry after India's budget airline Air India Express announced plans to cut down more than 200 services to destinations including the Gulf Sector.

Services to  Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Muscat and Kuwait are affected by the decision.

Abhay Pathak, the regional head of Air India told Gulf News the decision has been taken considering both operational and commercial reasons.

"Flights to some of the sectors have been curtailed, and not cancelled. It is mainly due to commercial reasons as Air India is already operating flights to all these sectors," said Pathak.

He added that the decision was also taken because the unavailability of pilots. "The licensing of expat pilots is a long procedure and the needed numbers are not available now. Moreover we need to curtail the flying hours in order to continue the services," he said.

According to him, only the daily flight to Cochin-Sharjah has been knocked off. "From Sharjah to to Thiruvananthapuram sector, four-day week service is cut down to two days. Likewise, for the flights in the Calicut sector, the daily service is reduced to three days a week," said Pathak, adding that the number of cancellations quoted in the media is exaggerated.

For Air India Express operating from Dubai, flights to Thiruvananthapuram will operate six days a week and not daily. Flights to Lucknow have been reduced to three days a week from the current four days.

Pathak said all the passengers who are booked to these sectors  "will be taken care of and will not be affected by the cancellations."

According to reports quoting airline officials from India, the decision will come into effect from next week. "Around 203 flights (73 from Kozhikode, 74 from Thiruvananthapuram and 56 from Kochi) stand cancelled.