Air India Gaya-Delhi flight suspended from July to September

GAYA: The operation of Air India flight AI 433, the only one flying from Gaya to New Delhi via Varanasi, will remain suspended for nearly three months from July 4 to August 5 and again from August 17 to September 15.
Although Air India station manager P S Bhattacharya confirmed the suspension, he did not give any specific reason for it. Sources, however, claim that the step is being taken as part of a cost-cutting exercise of the public sector airline.
During the three-month period, Air India will use Airbus 320, which operates on the Gaya-Delhi route, to ferry haj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.The airline is likely to suspend operations on other less important routes to use its flights for ferrying haj pilgrims.
Air India is the official carrier of haj pilgrims from India. Approximately 7,000 of the nearly 1.5 lakh pilgrims from the country are from Bihar. Gaya is the embarkation point of all the haj pilgrims from the state.
Earlier, Air India used to hire planes from outside the country to ferry haj pilgrims and the operation of domestic flights remained unaffected. According to haj coordinator A M Karimi, “This time, Air India will ferry haj pilgrims. Therefore, domestic flights will remain suspended throughout the haj season.”
As per the itinerary of haj pilgrims from Bihar, they will depart in different batches from July 4 to August 5. They will return between August 17 and September 15.
Criticizing the suspension of the Gaya-Delhi flight for such a long period, Sanjay Sahay, a frequent flyer on the route, said, “The airline should make separate arrangements for the pilgrims, instead of suspending the operation of flights.”