The Hindu Business Line : Indian may restart services from Kolkata to Hyderabad

Kolkata, July 16 Indian, which suspended flights from Kolkata to Hyderabad and Vizag about six months back, plans to resume operations in these routes by the end of this year.

“We are awaiting arrival of new aircraft. There is a plan to resume operations in this segment, hopefully by the end of September this year,” a source in Indian said. However, Indian officials said, “it (resuming flight services) is certainly in our wish list. However, we do not have any concrete plans as of now.” Indian used to have “regular flights” to Hyderabad and Vizag but the airline withdrew flight services to these destinations due to shortage of aircraft, the source said.

Indian currently has a fleet of one Airbus 320, one Airbus 319 and a couple of Boeings. However, the airline plans to phase out Boeings by the middle of next year.

Indian has purchased 43 new Airbus recently of which one has already arrived in Delhi. “We are expecting a number of Airbus 319 before we resume services to Hyderabad and Vizag,” the official said.

According to Mr Manoj Saraf, Managing Committee Member of TAAI (Travel Agents Association of India) and Managing Director of Gainwell Travel, “there has been an overcapacity situation on the Kolkata-Hyderabad sector. There are many flights that are operating in this segment and getting a ticket is not that difficult.”

However, he added that most of these flights are scheduled for Bangalore and Chennai via Hyderabad as there is good demand on the Hyderabad-Bangalore and Hyderabad-Chennai sectors.