New Delhi: After a gap of seven years, Air India has decided to restore its services on two prime routes — Delhi-Dubai and Mumbai-Dubai — from 1 June.
The move comes just over a month after private rival Jet Airways stopped functioning because of financial issues.
The airline will offer one way economy class promotional fare of Rs 7,777 (all inclusive) from both Delhi and Mumbai up to 31 July 2019.
“National carrier Air India is all set for a major expansion plan to meet the heavy demand of seats by expanding its routes and operation of additional flights on major domestic and international routes,” said the Air India’s spokesperson.
Air India used to operate six flights daily on these routes between 2005 and 2012, but later, the route was allotted to Jet Airways, with the national carrier operating just one flight daily on these routes. But now, Air India has added back four additional flights.
From 1 June, Air India will offer 3,500 more seats per week on the Mumbai-Dubai-Mumbai route, and from 2 June, it will offer the same number of seats on the Delhi-Dubai-Delhi by operating two new flights each through its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
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Could bring down air fares
The additional flights are also expected to bring down airfares, which have been soaring since Jet’s temporary closure.
Going by the bookings at yatra.com for May 2019, the Mumbai-Dubai route has seen a 15 per cent rise in fares compared to last May, while Delhi-San Francisco flights have seen a 19 per cent rise, Delhi-Paris 12 per cent, Mumbai-New York 9 per cent and 5 per cent in the Delhi-Singapore and Delhi-Bangkok flights.
In terms of future bookings for the month of June, the Delhi-London flight has seen a 36 per cent rise in fares from last June, while the Delhi-San Francisco, Mumbai-Dubai and Mumbai-Bangkok flights have seen a 10, 6 and 5 per cent rise respectively.
Air India’s domestic expansion plans
On the domestic front, Air India will introduce new flights on the Bhopal-Pune-Bhopal and Chennai-Varanasi-Chennai routes from 5 June.
The number of flights on the Delhi-Bhopal-Delhi route will be increased from the current 14 flights per week to 20 flights per week.
The airline will also double its current seven flights on the Delhi-Raipur-Delhi route. Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi flights will go up to 39 from 34 flights per week, Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi to 27 from 20, Chennai-Ahmedabad-Chennai to eight from two, Chennai-Kolkata-Chennai to 11 from seven, Delhi-Vadodara-Delhi to 14 from seven and Mumbai-Visakhapatnam-Mumbai to 12 from seven.
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