- Air India group schedules 72 India-West Asia flights despite tensions.
- Flights include routes to Jeddah and Muscat with regulatory approvals.
- Airlines impose fuel surcharges after aviation fuel prices surge.
- Gulf conflict disrupts airspace, raising operating costs and travel demand.
The airline group declared that Air India and Air India Express will have 72 non-scheduled and scheduled flights between the country and West Asia on Sunday in a bid to ensure that the airlines stay connected between the UAE and India despite the intensifying geopolitical tension and the increasing penalty on the airspace of the UAE territory.
On March 15, both airline companies will still carry on with the scheduled flights to and out of Jeddah and Muscat. There will be eight flights between India and Jeddah, where Air India will operate in one flight each between Delhi and Mumbai in the return. On the same route, Air India express will introduce one flight per way on Bengaluru and Kozhikode.
Air India express will also have 12 scheduled flights between Muscat and between Delhi, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangaluru, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram. In addition to the regular network, the group will have 52 non-scheduled flights in and out of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with the operations being dependent on the slot availability and conditions in the departure stations. All the flights have the necessary approvals by the concerned Indian and local regulatory bodies.
Indian Airlines Swamp with Fuel Surcharges
This push in operations is in combination with the spurt in the announcement of fuel surcharges by the three biggest carriers in India as the prices of aviation turbine fuel skyrocket on the impact of the Gulf conflict. Akasa Air on Sunday was the other carrier to lead in imposing a surcharge, after Air India and IndiGo.
Akasa Air announced that its charge will fall between 199 to 1300 in local and global flights. IndiGo had earlier on announced its surcharge, which was effective on March 14, however with charges between 425 and2300 per route. Air India and Air India Express added a domestic fuel fee of 399 per ticket beginning March 12.
The surcharges are the direct transfer of the increased jet fuel prices to the passengers. Fuel prices of Aviation turbines in India are connected to the international scale of crude oils, which have soared a notch higher than 100 barrels per day since the American-Israeli raids on Iran on February 28. Operation costs have also been increased by the interference in the Gulf airspace due to the longer rerouted routes and more holding time.
One of the most economic corridors in the world is the gulf aviation corridor in India linking tens of millions of expatriate employees and their families in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain. The 72 flight operation of the Air India group on Sunday although much less than normal capacity is an attempt to maintain that route operating under the worst operating conditions in years.
