Air India to increase flight frequency to US from August 7 as demand from students grows

Amidst the dipping level of Covid-19 infection and opening of US universities for the fall semester, the government run Air India has increased the frequency of flights to the United States. According to an Indian Express report, the airline is going to run as many as 21 flights in a week to the US starting from August 7.

Till July, the airline was running only 10 weekly flights to the United States but with the surge of a large number of students, the number of direct flights to the US has more than doubled. It is pertinent to note that despite the upcoming increase in the India-US flights, the total number of flights between the two countries has not reached the level of early this year when the airline ran 40 weekly flights to the US. Travel between the two countries was completely banned by the US administration in May this year when the country was facing the worst phase of the second wave of Coronavirus.

Since the travel resumed, Indian students looking for flight tickets to the US were not only facing difficulties in booking the tickets but were also getting the tickets at an extremely inflated rate. Announcing the increase in the number of flights to the US, Air India in a tweet informed that additional flights will run between the two countries on August 6, August 13, August 20 and August 27. Apart from the flights run by Air India, the American airline companies United and Delta are also running a limited number of flights between the two countries.

An Air India official speaking on the condition of anonymity told the Indian Express that due to the limit on the number of flights, the airline was rescheduling the tickets of many passengers in a staggered manner. The official said that the situation was so dire that few passengers could only get tickets for a date one month after their schedule. However, the official said that with the introduction of new flights, the situation will certainly get better in the month of August.

31/07/21 Financial Express

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Categories: Air India Aug 2021, Foreign Aug 2021