Air India to operate additional flights on August 18

Mumbai, Aug 2 (PTI) National air carrier Air India Sunday
said it plans to operate additional flights on August 18 to
avoid possible inconvenience to passengers in case private
airline operators go ahead with their strike call.

"In addition to normal daily carriage of passengers on
our scheduled flights, we will be able to accomodate about
25,000 additional passengers on the scheduled flights and the
specially operated flights," an Air India spokesperson told
PTI here.

Six major private carriers, under the aegis of the
Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), has announced their
decision to not fly on August 18 to protest the rising prices
of aviation turbine fuel and taxes on it, besides high airport
charges.

They are also demanding an immediate bailout and
threatened to suspend their services indefinitely if the
government did not intervene urgently.

The move to operate additional flights over the scheduled
flights is to ensure that the passengers did not face
inconvenience in view of the proposed strike, he said.

Air India will also operate special flights with large
capacity aircraft like B 747 and Boeing 777 on high density
routes "so that the load of small flights can be accomodated
on a single flight," he said.

"We are hopeful that with full support of our employees,
we will not only be able to make optimal use of the aircraft
but also manpower so that maximum number of flights are
operated," the spokersperson said.

Air India will monitor the situation to gain a fair idea
of load in order to make the number of additional flights
commensurate with demand, the spokesperson said.

About one lakh passengers take 1,200 domestic flights
operated by all private airlines in a day.

White-bodied aircraft such as B-747 has a capacity of
430 seats against the commonly used 120 seater A-320s and
B-737s. PTI IAS
JVN
NNNN