Asia Bizz: India’s state-owned airline, Air India, announced on Friday that it has curbed several of its total flights till 15th June 2011. The airline has grounded around 30 domestic and international flights, due to higher jet fuel rates.
Amongst the 480 flights that Air India operates everyday, many flights running between metros and tier-2 and tier -3 cities have been cut down, in addition to flights on long distance routes such as Delhi-London and Delhi-Toronto.
The curbed Air India flights will return to normalcy after the 15th of June, as stated in the official release. The airline added that the reason for curbing these flights is due to the lean period from June to September. But experts believe June to be one of the peak periods and claim that the lean period only starts in July.
A few weeks ago, Air India pilots underwent a strike resulting in a net loss of 55.5 billion rupees in 2009-2010. Air India requires 3,790 kiloliters of jet fuel every day, of which it is only able to buy only 3,290 – which is 8% lesser than the total requirement.
Air India is under a cash and carry arrangement and would not have been able to operate flights out of the airports until it cleared all pending dues.
