Air India plans early morning flights between Chandigarh, Delhi

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 21

Claiming that Air India intended to restructure flights operating to and from the Chandigarh international airport, the airlines today told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it planned early morning flights between the city and Delhi for providing connectivity to European flights.

It also told the High Court that it planned “additional capacity” only after the airport was 24-hour functional. The Bench was also told that “Chandigarh-Bangkok” was making losses on a monopoly sector from the start. As such, a decision was taken to withdraw the flight. It added that Air India was in a financial crisis and could not afford to operate loss-making routes.

The High Court was also told that Air India had written to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Civil Aviation seeking permission to operate “hub and spoke” flights from the Chandigarh airport. If granted, it would greatly help Air India provide better connectivity and ease of travel to the people of Chandigarh and adjoining areas.

The spoke-hub pattern is a form of transport topology optimisation in which traffic planners organise routes as a series of “spokes” that connect outlying points to a central “hub”. In an affidavit submitted before the High Court, Meenakshi Malik, executive director, sales and marketing, Air India, said it could introduce a new early morning flight on Delhi-Chandigarh-Delhi sector from January next year.

The flight would depart from Delhi around 7 am and arrive at Chandigarh around 8 am. The departure time from Chandigarh to Delhi would be 8.45 am and the arrival in Delhi would be at 9.45 am. This was subject to regulatory approvals and availability of slots from Delhi and Chandigarh. She said the route would enable passengers from five states adjoining Chandigarh to connect to European flights such as London, Paris, Frankfurt, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Rome, Milan, Vienna and Madrid.

The morning flight would also provide connectivity to Bangkok from Delhi in the afternoon. After the restructuring, the number of flights between Delhi and Chandigarh would be 14 per week from the current seven.

The Bench was also told that the Chandigarh-Bangkok flight was incurring losses from the beginning. Air India continued to operate on this sector, thereby giving enough time for the flight to stabilise and generate revenue. However, it did not happen.