Tata-owned Air India is going ahead with its expansion plans, expanding its domestic and international flight network. In this effort, Wednesday inaugurated new flights connecting Mumbai to New York, Paris and Frankfurt starting in February 2023. , According to Air India, a daily service between Mumbai and New York (JFK International Airport) will start from February 14 next year. According to Air India, it is moving towards expanding its fleet with recently leased aircraft and bringing back older aircraft to service.
The international expansion comes at a time when Air India is facing shortage of both cockpit and cabin crew. Amid the shortage, the airline is looking at hiring ex-PAT pilots and has also offered it to its cabin crew, who earlier this year joined the company’s Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) scheme for its permanent employees. have opted to retire later, so that their service period can be extended. Two months to January 31, 2023.
“Vihaan.ai, a key element of our five-year transformation plan, is to strengthen India’s global network, connecting India’s major cities to even more destinations. These new non-stop flights to New York, Milan, Vienna, Copenhagen The launch of the flights is another step in a journey that will accelerate with the expansion of our aircraft fleet, said Campbell Wilson, CEO and MD of Air India.
The Mumbai-New York service will complement the airline’s existing daily service from Delhi to New York and four weekly flights to Newark Liberty Airport, it said, taking Air India’s India-US frequency to 47 non-stop flights per week. .
For Europe, Air India will add four weekly Delhi-Milan routes starting February 1, and three-weekly flights Delhi-Vienna and Delhi-Copenhagen starting February 18 and March 1, 2023, respectively, the airline said.
In addition, from Mumbai, there are also plans to launch new flights to Paris (thrice/week) and Frankfurt (four times/week) from the next quarter. All these flights will be operated by Air India’s B787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, which has 18 business class and 238 economy class seats. With the resumption of these flights, Air India said it will serve seven European cities with 79 weekly non-stop flights – 48 to the UK and 31 to Continental Europe.
With inputs from PTI
