New Delhi (NVI): Air India (AI) has cut its European footprint by half after closing down five stations in view of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The five stations are in Vienna, Milan, Madrid, Copenhagen, & Stockholm. This comes as the latest impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic on India’s aviation sector.
These cities have been removed from AI’s network as a cost-cutting move to survive the pandemic-induced severe downturn in travel.
Air India will now be flying only to London, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Paris and Rome in European Union (EU) and the UK.
“In view of the COVID situation, it has been approved by competent authority to close down following stations and become offline,” a note by the Commercial Division of Air India read.
“The current IBOs (international booking offices) are to be recalled to India and the station will be handed over to GSA (general sales agent) after completion of formality of closure,” the note further added.
Although India has started international flights to UK, France, Germany under air bubbles, but canceling flights to these cities is a strong indication that demand for international flights is at all time low, and it will take some time to recover.
-CHK
