Air India plans to withdraw the more modern Airbus 321 aircraft from the Dubai and Sharjah routes and replace it with the older Airbus 320 with effect from October 28.
According to Air India sources, the engineering wing of the airline has already issued a circular to the effect that with effect from October 28, the A 321 planes will be withdrawn from Dubai and Sharjah routes. The airline is justifying this decision by saying that the number of passengers in these routes does not justify a bigger aircraft.
Abhay Pathak, Air India's regional manager for Gulf, Middle East and Africa, said he is not sure of the replacement. “I am not sure about this, but it could be part of our winter scheduling,” he told Emirates 24|7. He said he will have to confirm the news from higher authorities.
Passengers are not happy about Air India’s decision to switch aircraft on these routes. “During our last meeting with Air India officials, they agreed to introduce the A321 temporarily. It has more passenger capacity, good facilities and is more fuel efficient than the A320. They are withdrawing these aircraft from the Gulf sector, which is a cash cow for the airline, and deploying them in the US and European sectors. Ideally, the airline should be using the A321 in the Gulf sector because it is 40 per cent more fuel efficient than the A320 and can solve the problem of luggage offloading,” said KM Basheer, president of the All India Airport Users Forum.
24/10/11 VM Sathish/Emirates 24-7
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