AI shifting Dubai passengers to parallel flights

With agitation by Air India pilots entering its fourth day today, the airline management here is trying to shift passengers to parallel flights, a senior official said.

Abhay Pathak, Air India's regional manager, said so far, only one flight to India -- IC 968 Sharjah-Trivandrum-Trichy-Chennai -- has been cancelled.

"As part of the contingency plan, we are shifting passengers to Air India Express flights that operate parallel," he said. That means loads of flights from Sharjah to Hyderabad and Dubai to Hyderabad have been combined to keep the operations running.

"This will save cost as well as reduce hassle to the passengers," he said. He also said Dubai-Goa and Dubai-Chennai flights are operating as usual.

"We are in touch with passengers all the time and are doing our best to keep them informed of the measures we are taking," he said adding the focus is on keeping parallel arrangements running so that passenger inconvenience is minimised.

Meanwhile, reports coming from Saudi Arabia said the pilots' strike has led to cancellations of a number of incoming and outgoing flights. A flight from Mumbai, which was scheduled to arrive in Jeddah late on Monday night, was cancelled and so the outgoing flight from Jeddah to Delhi on Tuesday.