No more stopover, fly directly from Kolkata to UK now

KOLKATA: A week after the fiasco over Air India's direct flights between London and Kolkata that turned out to be hopping ones with the first flight stopping in Delhi and the second one in Mumbai, the airline on Wednesday announced it would henceforth operate direct between the two cities as had been announced in the original schedule.
Flight AI 1150 took off from London's Heathrow airport on Wednesday noon local time and is scheduled to reach Kolkata at 2.20am on Thursday.The return flight, AI 1149, is scheduled to depart Kolkata four hours later at 6.20am and reach London at 12.20pm local time.
The announcement was welcomed by the travel trade industry as well as passengers who had purchased tickets on the direct 11-hour flight but were facing the prospect of an 18-hour journey following the halt in Mumbai. Air India had blamed the change in routing to the slot being withdrawn at the last hour by authorities in the UK, something that both Heathrow Airport representatives and the UK Civial Aviation Authority had denied.
Refusing to be drawn further into the controversy, the AI spokesperson said the Vande Bharat flights scheduled till October 24 would henceforth operate on the pre-scheduled route, ferrying passengers directly between the two cities.
"It is good to know AI has sorted out the issues on direct operations. The travel trade fraternity will extend its support to ensure that the flight is a success. But it will also require concerted marketing on the part of the airline. We hope the airline will now be consistent so that passenger confidence returns," said Travel Agents' Federation of India chairman (east) Anil Punjabi.
"Flights usually require at least three months to stabilise. There is no magic that can drive up loads within a week, particularly in a pandemic situation when leisure travel has disappeared. The airline can look at altering the flight time to reach Kolkata around noon and depart therafter. This will help people residing in the Northeast and other eastern states to take the flight," said Travel Agents' Association of India chairman (east) Manav Soni.
Though the UK is issuing all categories of visas and processing them within five-seven working days, tourism is yet to take off. At present, the flyers are either students travelling to join institutions in the UK or those visiting friends and relatives who reside in the UK.