The airline winter schedule, which rolls out on October 25, will be a mixed bag of surprises for passengers. While Kuwait Airways joins a list of airlines that will be reducing services to India, the Dubai-based Emirates Airlines plans to increase weekly flights here.
In addition, the State-owned Air India plans to introduce a daily non-stop flight between Chennai and Muscat. AI Express, the airline’s low-cost arm, will also see an increase in capacity with the introduction of all-economy class Airbus A-320 on flights to Dubai, Sharjah, Kuala Lumpur and Colombo from various cities around the country.
Downsizing
Sources told Business Line that Kuwait Airways is to reduce its services to 22 from the current 32 flights. The downsizing is to see the airline withdraw from Hyderabad, operate four times a week to Delhi from the current daily service and fly three times a week to Kochi instead of the current five weekly flights.
In the past, several airlines, including the UK-based Virgin Atlantic, have withdrawn from Mumbai while another European carrier pushed back plans of launching a flight to the financial capital of the country.
The Dubai-based Emirates Airlines, however, plans to increase to 12, the weekly services to Thiruvanthapuram while it will fly 11 times a week to Kozhikode from the current six-times-a-week, while Qatar Airways plans to launch services to Amritsar later this month, sources said.
Among the Indian carriers, Kingfisher Airline plans to start a daily service from Chennai to Salem apart from linking Delhi with Pant Nagar and Ludhiana.
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