Air India to withdraw profitable flights

Chennai: All airlines gear up for roaring business for the holiday season between October and January each year. But not Air India.
The Maharaja slept like a log last winter after withdrawing some of its profit making flights citing ‘poor load and viability’.
Ditto this year, starting November, but for a different reason: ‘shortage of cabin crew’. Blame it on the management for not planning in advance or the political manipulations that Air India is regularly subjected to.
Five out of the six flights that have been withdrawn from the southern region have shown an average seat occupancy rate of over 85 per cent throughout the year.
Take for instance the Chennai-Colombo IC573/574. One of the oldest and most strategic linkages between the island nation and India, this flight has been operational for over 30 years. The flight, airline insiders say, has always been full or shown not less than 80 per cent seat occupancy. However, it is to be discontinued from mid- November. The other flights that are to be discontinued are the Hyderabad-Sharjah sector, Trivandrum-Bangalore-Chennai sector, Bangalore-Singapore sector and Chennai- Kuala Lumpur sector.
Last year, after nine profitable flights were withdrawn citing ‘poor load and viability’, Express crosschecked their fact sheets and found that they had a seat occupancy rate of over 80 per cent.
01/11/10 Mamta Todi/ExpressBuzz

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Categories: Air India Domestic Nov 2010, Air India Nov 2010