New Delhi: In another cost-cutting move, Air India has now decided to stop flights to five European cities after a drop in passenger traffic from these destinations.
"Air India flights to Madrid, Milan, Vienna, and Copenhagen have been scrapped with immediate effect as the route has no passenger load and it was not financially viable for the airline to operate," said an Air India spokesperson to ETV Bharat.
"Under the Vande Bharat Mission, Air India has already flights to limited destinations to European sectors and we will start the operations once again as and when the demands rise," he added.
Last month, Air India had announced three flights every week from Delhi to Paris every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. And, 4 flights every week from Delhi to Frankfurt on every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
"In view of the COVID situation, it has been approved by competent authority to close down following stations and become offline," an internal letter circulated by the Commercial Division of Air India stated.
"The current IBOs (international booking offices) are to be recalled to India and the station will be handed over to GSA (general sales agent) after completion of formality of closure," the letter added.
Notably, India has air bubbles arrangement with the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Kuwait. The government has also allowed all Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and certain categories of foreigners to fly in from countries with which India has an air bubble arrangement.
In July, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) had stated that global passenger traffic will not return to pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024, a year later than previously projected.
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