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Air India announces summer schedule

ABU DHABI - Air India on Tuesday announced its summer 2004 schedule to several destinations in India, with a total of 21 flights per week from the capital and one from Al Ain, with convenient onward connections to Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.

Captain P P Singh, Regional Director, Gulf, Middle East and Africa and Bharat Chaturvedi, Manager, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain of Air India, announced the new schedule at the annual Air India Award ceremony for its top agents.

They expressed the hope that the community and the travel industry will continue its support to the airlines.

Air India, Abu Dhabi awards 10 top travel and three cargo agents for their support and cooperation every year.

Rajesh Parrik, Marketing Manager for Abu Dhabi announced the winners. He said that while only 10 were being awarded for their performance Air India was indebted to all the other travel agencies for their support.

Mr Chaturvedi said that of the 21 flights, five are scheduled directly for Mumbai daily (except Fridays and Sundays) with standard departure time of 2100 hrs.

"There will be convenient connections and custom clearance at Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai," he said. He also announced three direct flights to Trivandrum on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.

One additional flight has been introduced for the Cochin sector raising the number of weekly flights in this sector to five.

"Apart from Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, there will be a morning flight on Thursdays for the convenience of government employees," said Mr Chaturvedi.

Calicut has five flights with standard departure time of 1200 operating on all days except Tuesdays and Saturdays. While there is no change in the schedule of the once a week Calicut flight from Al Ain.

Lucknow is now a flight away from Dubai once a week on every Friday bringing the total number of Air India flights from Dubai excluding the code-sharing ones to 40 flights a week.

Mr Chaturvedi said that the total number of flights operated during 2003 increased from 867 in the previous year to 958, an increase of 10 per cent.

The seat factor also increased from 64.7 per cent in 2002 to 71 percent in 2003. He attributed the upsurge to 80 per cent on time performance, competitive pricing, limo service for business class passengers at Abu Dhabi and Dubai and continued community support.