Railways runs special trains for stranded fliers

Kolkata: For Air India passengers caught in the pilot strike, Indian Railways has got into the rescue act with special bail-out trains. On Saturday, a special AC train was operated from Sealdah to New Delhi, carrying stranded air passengers from one of the worst-hit sectors. In all, railways will be operating 20 trains between six major destinations: Kolkata-Delhi, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Hyderabad, Mumbai-Bikaner and Chennai-Bangalore.
"We operated a Rajdhani category superfast train to clear the extra rush of passengers due to non-availability of AI flights services," an Eastern Railway spokesperson said. Though other airlines fly to Delhi, the cancellation of AI flights has led to a deficit situation, triggering a massive surge in fares. Of the 21 AI flights that were scheduled to operate out of Kolkata, 13 were cancelled. The carrier operated flights to Delhi, Port Blair, Agartala, Shillong, Silchar, Guwahati, Bagdogra and Dibrugarh on Saturday. Most of these were to the North-east, where the airline operates low-capacity ATR aircraft.
According to an AI spokesperson, the carrier would continue to endorse its passengers on flights operated by other airlines as long as additional seats were available.
01/05/11 Times of India

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Categories: Air India May 2011