AI's Kolkata service to London axed

Kolkata: Air India has decided to ground its thrice weekly Kolkata-London service from October 28, barely three months after it was reintroduced t
his July. The pullout will slash connectivity between Kolkata and London by half, with only British Airways continuing to offer a direct service.
AI officials cited poor load due to inconvenient flight schedule for the decision to suspend operations on the sector. The move comes a day after private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines decided to join hands and service markets in a bid to rationalise operational costs. Saddled with mounting losses, AI has begun to slash flights with poor yield. "The Kolkata-London flight was axed as it was hardly drawing passengers," an AI official said.
Citing an inconvenient landing slot at Heathrow Airport for the poor load, the official explained that US-bound passengers did not board the flight as it entailed an eight-hour wait in London due to night curfew on flights. Over 75% of London-bound passengers are transit travellers to the US and Canada. In the past seven flights, the average passenger load factor on the sector was less than 15%. Although the seven flights had a cumulative capacity of 1,953 seats, only 270 flew to London. On Tuesday, the London-bound flight took off with just 22 passengers. The Airbus 330-200 has 279 seats.
15/10/08 Arpit Basu/Times of India

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Categories: Air India - International Oct 2008, NACIL Oct 2008