Air India starts direct flight from Kolkata to Dubai

KOLKATA: National carrier Air India began Kolkata-Dubai services on Tuesday afternoon, becoming the second carrier to offer direct flights on the sector. The inaugural flight took off from the city with 137 passengers on board.
Emirates, the other airline that offers direct services from Kolkata to Dubai, runs 11 flights a week. AI will fly on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. The departure time has been fixed at 2.50pm and landing time 6.55pm (Dubai time), the total flying period beings five hours, 35 minutes.
“We have fulfilled a long-standing demand of the travel fraternity, tourists and professionals to have a direct flight by the national carrier to the Gulf,” said Sanjay Mishra, regional director of Air India. An official said an A320 neo aircraft—with 150 economy-class seats and 12 business-class seats—would be used on the sector. The fares start at Rs 11,920 (one way) and Rs 20,600 (both) in the economy class. The flight to Dubai is the national carrier’s sixth international service from the city, the others being to Kathmandu, Dhaka, Myanmar, Yangon and Bangkok. “We are looking forward to adding more flights to Dhaka,” Mishra said.
Travel agents in the city said this would not only boost tourism on the sector but also offer a choice to flyers, who would so far, had to depend solely on Emirates for a direct flight or stop over in Mumbai, Delhi or Hyderabad. “The addition will help tourism and allow people to choose from the two airlines,” said Anil Punjabi, chairman (east), Travel Agent Federation of India. Operators also pointed out the fares would be a big factor in the flight’s sustainability. “Air India is starting with a lucrative price, which is cheaper than that of Emirates. Fares will play a big role in the competition,” said an operator. An estimated 50,000 people travel from Kolkata to Dubai every year.
The new services were introduced on a day Pakistan opened its airspace to all civilian traffic, removing the ban on Indian flights that were not allowed to use majority of its airspace since the Balakot air strikes in February. Indian carriers—Air India, SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir—lost nearly Rs 550 crore owing to the prohibition, aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri had recently said at the Parliament. Suffering a loss of Rs 491 crore till July 2, AI was reportedly the worst affected as it conducted various international flights from Delhi to Europe and the US. It had to re-route, merge or suspend many of its international flights to European and US cities. “The lifting of the ban will help the aviation sector and Air India,” said a senior AI officer at the city airport on Tuesday.
“The Pakistan airspace closure had raised airfares. With the reopening, flying hours will be normalised and fares likely to come down,” said Daniel D’souza, president and country head, Leisure at SOTC Travel.