Air India, which is growing rapidly after being acquired by the Tata Group, has used its Airbus A350s on routes to North America, where it operates daily flights to New York.
Moreover, the new A350s serving London Heathrow have made the Boeing 777s available, refurbished, and deployed more heavily to more destinations. Nevertheless, such expansions and improvements are valuable in the airline industry. Although the airline is now experiencing disruptions, where it has been misfortuned, many sources note that flight cancellations occur during the peak winter travel period for connecting India and North America.
Flight cancellation during this time is even more devastating because of the high traffic in December as many Indian diaspora and tourists make their way home or visit loved ones over the festive season up to New Year’s Day. This flow, known as Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR), generally leads to a rate increase and overcrowding of available seats, the elimination of which may be of significant concern to consumers.
In tables on AeroRoutes, a website that tracks flight schedules, Air India has made several changes and even cancelations in its major North American routes, including Delhi San Francisco, Delhi Washington, Delhi Toronto, Delhi Chicago, and Delhi Newark.
Aviation industry data provider Cirium showed that more than 50 flights are being axed across the company, with 14 being to Chicago, 16 to San Francisco, eight to Toronto, and over 20 to Washington.
Routes that will be affected in this regard are Delhi to New York, which is currently served with A350s; flights from Mumbai and Bengaluru are also safe for now. The position of Air India has become more favorable on these routes in the recent past as the airline keeps operating over Russian airspace, which has been shut down by most Western airlines because of the Ukraine crisis.
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