The Hindu Business Line : IA to offer more flights in summer schedule

INDIAN Airlines (IA) will offer more seats on the Chennai-Port Blair-Chennai, Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai and Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi sectors, among others, during its summer schedule beginning March 28 this year.

The state-owned airline plans to offer a daily flight with a 145-seater Airbus A-320 aircraft on the Chennai-Port Blair-Chennai sector from March 28. At present, the airline offers four-times-a-week flight on the sector with a 119-seater Boeing 737 aircraft.

Airbus A-320 aircraft daily means that the airline will be able to more than double the seats on offer on the sector from the existing 476 seats a week in one direction to 1,015 seats.

In addition, the airline will operate seven more flights a week on the Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai sector, taking the total number of weekly flights operated with an Airbus A-320 aircraft on the sector to 28 from the existing 21 flights.

On the Delhi-Mumbai sector, IA will offer 77 flights a week with an Airbus A-320 aircraft, apart from operating seven flights a week with a Boeing 737 aircraft. The decision of the airline will mean that it would offer 994 more seats a week in one direction on the sector.

Among the new flights, which the airline plans to introduce, include IC-605 on the Mumbai-Delhi sector which will leave at 8.45 p.m. and arrive in the capital at 10.40 p.m. Besides, IA will also operate a new flight (IC-606) on the Delhi-Mumbai sector which will leave the capital at 10 a.m. and arrive at its destination at 11.55 a.m.

Similarly, on the Mumbai-Bangalore-Mumbai sector, the airline will operate IC-103 which will leave at 10.55 a.m. and arrive in the financial capital at 12.25 p.m. In the return direction, the flight will leave Bangalore at 1.10 p.m. and arrive in Mumbai at 2.40 p.m.

Meanwhile, official sources said there might be some more changes in the airline flight schedule in June this year, when more leased aircraft join the fleet.