MUMBAI: Beginning on May 3, Air India will start daily flight operations for its passengers on the Mumbai Coimbatore. The A320-Neo fleet flight will run every day for the entire week.
At 6:30 in the morning, flight AI 609 will leave Mumbai and land in Coimbatore at 8:20. The AI 608 return flight will take off from Coimbatore at 9 am and land in Mumbai at 11 am. According to the airline, as reported by News18, passengers would also be able to fly from Mumbai to London and San Francisco on the same aircraft. The carrier decided to resume service in order to give passengers a smooth journey.
In other news, Air India has sent out a strongly worded email, including a directive of disciplinary and monetary action against its pilots, in case of delay in licence renewal or Airport Entry Pass (AEP). This suggests that the dispute between the management of Air India and the pilots may continue for a few more days. This came after the carrier, on April 17, unveiled a revised compensation structure for its pilots and cabin crew.
The two pilot unions, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), later rejected the new compensation structure on the grounds that the carrier, in alleged violation of labour laws, did not consult them before finalising the new contracts.
India is quickly becoming a significant global aviation industry, according to the International Air Transport Association's (ATA) most recent market study report. Domestic air travel in India has been steadily increasing, and as of February, it was only 2.2 percent away from pre-pandemic passenger revenue kilometre (PRK) levels.
According to the report's passenger load factor (PLF) indicator, which also takes into account the domestic passenger markets of the US, China, and Japan, India's domestic passenger market likewise outperformed the others. With PLFs of 81.6 percent in February, 85.2 percent in January, 88.9 percent in December 2022, and 87.9 percent in November 2022, it has been the top domestic market for the past four months.
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