 "Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Representational Image/Reuters")
As Air India faces scrutiny over the safety and maintenance of its Boeing aircraft, the Indian airline has released a revised international flight schedule, effective from June 21 to July 15. The new roster followed the airline company’s announcement that it would temporarily reduce services on wide-body aircraft, including Boeing 787s and 777s, by 15 per cent.
The move is also coming in the wake of the Ahmedabad plane crash, in which a Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a medical college in Ahmedabad, killing 241 people onboard, with a lone survivor. In a statement released on Thursday, the airline confirmed that 83 international flights using Boeing 787s had already been cancelled between June 12, the day the crash occurred, and June 18.
Apart from this, additional reductions will be implemented through June 20 and extended until at least mid-July. Air India argued that these cuts are aimed at “ensuring stability of operations, improving efficiency, and minimising last-minute inconvenience to passengers."
What flights are getting affected?
The revised schedule includes the full suspensions of select routes, including Delhi–Nairobi, Amritsar–London Gatwick and Goa (Mopa)–London Gatwick. There are also reduced frequencies on several North American, European, Far Eastern, and Australian routes.
Air India maintained that the decision to reduce the capacity of flights stems from multiple factors, i.e. ongoing enhanced safety inspections, a cautious approach by engineering staff and pilots, night airspace curfews in parts of Europe and East Asia and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe airline acknowledged the inconvenience caused to the passengers by the change of the schedule and assured that the travellers were being proactively contacted and offered alternative flights, complimentary rescheduling, or full refunds. “Passengers will also be offered a choice to reschedule their travel without any cost or to be given a full refund, as per their choice," the airline said in its statement.
Meanwhile, the airline company also issued a travel advisory for passengers flying to or through the Middle East, citing ongoing airspace volatility. The airline authorities noted that the revised schedule will progressively get updated on airindia.com, the mobile app and via the airline’s contact centres. “This effectively adds to our reserve aircraft availability to take care of any unplanned disruptions," the airline added. Meanwhile, the Indian authorities have sent the black box of the doomed Boeing aircraft to the US to retrieve the data from the damaged device.