There is good news for thousands of passengers traveling from Saudi Arabia to India. Air India announced plans Thursday to resume normal operations soon.
“Air India will be operating five flights a week from Riyadh with plans to increase the flight frequency to eight per week from July 4 onward,” said R. Prabu Chandran, Air India manager responsible for operations in Riyadh.
Chandran made this announcement even as the Indian carrier continued to struggle with cancellation of international flights from Delhi and Mumbai as striking pilots crippled the airline's operations globally and disrupted flights on Saudi-India sector.
"A total of 56 flights were canceled on Saudi-India sector alone," said Chandran, while pledging to to fly stranded passengers out as early as possible.
"Air India will operate three flights to Mumbai, three to Delhi and two to Cochin every week from July 4," he said, adding that the Air Indian station in Jeddah and Dammam were not much affected. A total of 15,970 passengers, mainly in Riyadh region, were left stranded because of the pilots' strike since May 8. Most of the passengers are blue-collar workers or those traveling during summer break for holidays.
Asked about the measures taken by the local Air India office in Riyadh to facilitate the travel of passengers and to provide information about flights, Chandran said that Air India managed to operate 42 interim flights to Mumbai/Delhi/Cochin during the last two weeks and assisted the stranded passengers to enable them to reach to interior destinations in India by providing them with connecting flights.
He said that the passengers who reported at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on May 8, May 9 and May 10 were accommodated in hotels and sent on subsequent flights. Passengers were also given the option to get a refund and full refund was paid without deducting any charge, he added.
In some cases, passengers were rerouted on Air India or on other airlines to their destinations without any additional charges, he explained.
Referring to the move by the Air India Riyadh office to airlift the stranded passengers as early as possible, he said that a large number of passengers had been rebooked on subsequent dates depending on the frequency of flights without any charge. "But, we expect resumption of normal operations once the pilots' agitation is resolved," said Chandran, while referring to the continuing deadlock between the pilots and the Indian government.
He, however, pointed out that the Air India would manage to provide a number of flights from Riyadh to Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi during the remaining days of June.
