NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of IndiGo and Air India announcing a cut in domestic operations from June 1, Air India Express on Wednesday said it would also trim its domestic operations by nearly 10%.
An Air India Express source told TNIE that the routes were being reduced primarily due to poor passenger demand on some sectors. “We average 460 domestic flights daily and this would be reduced to 420-plus from June,” the source said.
The Bengaluru-Kathmandu route has not received much response and would be removed from the network, the source added. “The Bengaluru-North Goa route too would be removed since the other airport in Goa can be used to cater to passengers travelling along this route,” the source said.
The airline, however, has scaled up its international operations despite the increase in Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices, the source added.
In an official statement, Air India Express said, “We have been progressively restoring connectivity between India and West Asia, and also introducing new routes across our domestic and international network, while making calibrated adjustments to optimise our network and align capacity with changes in demand. The impact on domestic frequencies is less than 10%.”
“Air India Express now operates about 500 weekly flights between India and West Asia, up significantly from around 280 weekly flights just a few weeks ago, with services restored progressively across 11 airports in the region. Overall, the airline operates more than 3,000 weekly flights across its network spanning South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Asia,” it added.
“This balanced and agile approach enables us to deploy capacity efficiently while continuing to strengthen meaningful connectivity across key domestic and international destinations,” an Air India Express spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for SpiceJet said the airline was not reducing its domestic operations.