Tata Group-owned Air India on Wednesday announced the launch of new flights connecting Mumbai to New York, Paris and Frankfurt from February next year. Apart from this, the airline has also announced the resumption of non-stop flights connecting Delhi to Copenhagen, Milan and Vienna.
Tata Group-owned Air India on Wednesday announced the launch of new flights connecting Mumbai to New York, Paris and Frankfurt from February next year. Apart from this, the airline has also announced the resumption of non-stop flights connecting Delhi to Copenhagen, Milan and Vienna. Air India said that the daily service of Mumbai-New York (JFK International Airport) will start from February 14 next year.
Air India said it is making steady progress towards augmenting its fleet with newly leased aircraft and bringing existing aircraft back into active service.
Option given to cabin crew to extend VRS date The international expansion comes at a time when Air India is facing shortage of both cockpit and cabin crew. Amidst this shortage, the airline is considering hiring pilots who work abroad. Apart from this, Air India has given the option of extending their tenure till January 31, 2023 to the cabin crew opting for voluntary retirement scheme.
The Tata Group-owned airline had offered Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to its employees, including cabin crew, in June this year. The release date of those who opted for VRS was fixed on 30 November. Sources said that around 4,500 employees had applied for the scheme.
Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson said that a key element of our five-year transformation plan, Vihaan.AI, is to strengthen India’s global network and connect India’s major cities to even more destinations. Paris and Frankfurt are another step in that journey, which will accelerate with the expansion of our aircraft fleet, Wilson said. He said that will take Air India’s India-US frequency to 47 non-stop flights per week.
Air India will start non-stop flights to Europe, Air India will start four weekly flights on the Delhi-Milan route from February 1. Tri-weekly flights to Delhi-Vienna and Delhi-Copenhagen will commence from February 18 and March 1, 2023. In addition, there are plans to start new flights from Mumbai to Paris (thrice/week) and Frankfurt (four times/week). 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 79 weekly non-stop flights to seven cities in Europe – 48 to the UK and 31 to continental Europe.
