New Delhi: Air India has cancelled 2,500 flights to West Asia, amidst the ongoing war between Israel-US and Iran. The airline is currently operating at only
30% of its capacity, said Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson in an internal communications to employees on Friday.
In a note shared with the company’s employees Campbell said, “The world, our region and our industry continue to contend with the impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East…the impact on Air India Group is significant given the usual scale of our operations to, and through, the Middle East.”
Only 30% of the usual flight to Middle East operational
Campbell said in the note that at present the airline was able to operate only 30% of its normal Middle East schedule, reported Hindustan Times. He informed that Air India had to cancel 2,500 flights to the region in the past 3 weeks. He blamed airports or airspace closures for the scale down in operations. He added that flights are also being cancelled due to some airspaces being assessed as being dangerous for flying.
According to the CEO these disruptions are beginning to impact the airline industry. The jet fuel prices have increased to more than double their normal cost. The impact of this rise would be seen only by next month, said Campbell.
Talking about the measures that Air India has taken to negate these rising prices, Campbell said that the airlines had already imposed a fuel surcharge on the tickets.
He however said that not all customers are willing to pay such high fares. So he said that there would be a limit upon how high the airlines can raise prices, because after a certain level, the demand would drop.
Flights being rerouted: CEO
The CEO further said that several flights are now being re-routed. He said that this re-routing was already in place, ever since the Pahalgam attack, but now the Air India flights are using even longer paths to reach destinations in the UK, Europe and North America. This has led to consumption of more fuel and also increased the flying time, he said.
However in some good news for the employees he said that Air India was adding new flights and exploring “pockets of new demand” in markets of Europe and North America. These flights are being deployed as some other airlines are cutting flights to the region, due to the increasing cost.
He said that the airlines would have to adjust to the new situation, keeping in mind the customer’s demands, cost and fuel shortage. He emphasised that the priority of Air India would be safety of both its crew and passengers. He sought support from employees and said that there was a need to cut down on unnecessary and non-urgent expenditure.
