Dubai: Air India has taken steps to deal with the disruption in its Middle East operations caused by the pilots' strike.
"We have made contingency plans for some flights and are downsizing based on the number of passengers booked," Abhay Pathak, Air India's regional manager for Gulf, Middle East and Africa markets told Gulf News.
To minimise passenger inconvenience, flights are either being combined, rerouted or passengers are being transferred to other airlines.
Air India's Dubai-Kozhikode flight has been cancelled and passengers have been transferred to Indian Express, a sister airline. The Sharjah- Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai route passengers have also been shifted to Indian Express. In some cases, passengers are being diverted to Emirates airline, Pathak said.
However, the airline operated flights to Goa and Chennai yesterday. It will continue to operate its Dubai-Delhi and Sharjah-Delhi flights. On Monday, the airline operated nine of the twelve regional flights.
"We are working on a day-to-day basis and hoping this will be sorted out soon," Pathak said.
