Air India cuts international flights on widebody fleet by 15% to ‘ensure operational stability’
Passengers affected by the disruption over the ‘next few weeks’ will be offered alternate flights or a full refund, said the airline.
Air India on Wednesday said that it will reduce its international services that use widebody aircraft by 15% for the “next few weeks” to ensure operational stability.
The changes will also improve operational efficiency and minimise inconvenience to passengers, the airline said.
The decision came amid disruptions to services following the crash of Air India’s Boeing 787 aircraft in Ahmedabad on June 12.
Safety checks
Investigating authorities are continuing their efforts to find out the reasons for the accident, Air India said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation had mandated enhanced safety inspection of Air India’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet.
Out of Air India’s 33 Dreamliner aircraft, 26 were cleared for service after inspection, the airlines said. The checks on the remaining aircraft will be conducted “in the coming days”, it added.
“The fact that 26 aircraft have been cleared gives reassurance in the safety measures and procedures that we follow,” said Air India.
The airline said that as a precautionary measure, it was also conducting checks on its fleet of Boeing 777 planes, another widebody aircraft.
On Tuesday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that checks conducted on Air India’s 787 fleet had not revealed major safety concerns.
Schedule changes
Air India said that 83 of its flights had been cancelled in the last six days due to a range of factors.
The factors that led to the disruptions included airspace closures in West Asia, night curfew in the airspaces of several European and East Asian countries, the safety inspections and the “necessary cautious approach being taken by the engineering staff” and the pilots.
The decision to temporarily reduce its international services operated on widebody aircraft was because of the “compounding circumstances that Air India is facing”.
“The cuts [in services] will be implemented between now and June 20 and will continue thereafter until at least mid-July,” the airline said. “This effectively adds to our reserve aircraft availability to take care of any unplanned disruptions.”
Air India said that passengers affected by the changes will be informed in advance and that it will try to accommodate them on alternate flights. Passengers will also be offered the option to either reschedule their travel without additional cost or avail a full refund.
Two hundred and forty-two persons were aboard the 787-8 aircraft – enroute to London’s Gatwick airport from Ahmedabad – that crashed just 33 seconds after taking off on June 12. Only one passenger survived with “impact injuries”.
The aircraft’s crash into the hostel building of the BJ Medical College also killed at least 33 persons on the ground. The crash is being viewed as the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade and the first fatal incident involving a 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
