Air India (AI) Express has announced an increase in the frequency of its services to Dubai to seven flights a week and to Mumbai to two flights a week from Tiruchi. The increase in frequency of the services, under the winter schedule of the airline, will come into effect from December 10, 2010. With this, the total number of flights operated by the airline from the city will go up to 34 flights a week from the current 32.

Significantly, the service on the route was introduced by the airline essentially to send Boeing 737-800 aircraft for weekly engineering maintenance. The flight was sent to Thiruvananthapuram for some time before being sent to Mumbai. However, travellers from the Tiruchi region and even from across the state started patronising the service. The competitive one-way fare of Rs 3,160 offered by the airline on the sector is cited as one of the main reasons. The fare is considered cheap when compared to those of flights to Mumbai from Madurai and Coimbatore, where most private airlines follow a dynamic fare system.

The decision to increase the frequency of services was attributed to good patronage on both the routes. The recently introduced once-a-week Tiruchi-Mumbai service had become a hit with the flights operating with a 70 per cent load factor.

(You need to login first to read complete news).
New User? Register for FREE!
» Back to Travel News