Air India Reduces Surat-Delhi Flight Schedules

Thursday, 29th November 2012 at 01:19am

The top management of Air India recently made the decision to reduce frequency in its Surat-Delhi route starting from December, from its current five times weekly down to four times a week.

According to sources, Air India's subsidiary, Indian was the only carrier serving the route since it started flying in 2009 from the Surat Airport. Air India, ever since, has not expanded its network by opening new routes or increase frequency to its existing network.

As if to send a signal of the impending bad business ahead, Indian retired its 128-seater aircraft in favor to a fleet of smaller 68-seater planes.

With the downsizing of air service to Surat, other airline companies filled the void left by Air India by mounting regular air service on the Surat-Mumbai-Delhi sector and additionally opening up more routes. According to a local trader, Pankaj Desai, the reduced flight frequency by Air India to Surat from its hub in Delhi somehow sends a wrong signal to other airline operators who are eying to open up air service to the city.

The low-cost carrier, SpiceJet, commenced its Surat operation in January 2012, making it the newest airline serving the Surat market connecting to two of the country's major cities, Mumbai and Delhi. A few months later, the airline decided to open up more connections from Surat to five other key cities in the country such as Bangalore, Chennai, Kozhkode, Goa and Mangalore.

By: Pete Lee.