Air India Express curtailed services

TIRUCHIRAPALLI: Air India Express has curtailed more services from the city, citing crew constraints yet again. This is the third major rescheduling of fl ights announced by the airline over the past four months. Offi cial sources here said the base of an aircraft belonging to the airliner has been shifted to Dubai from here. As per the latest schedule released by the airline the thrice-a-week direct service on the Tiruchirapalli- Kuala Lumpur-Tiruchirapalli sector has been withdrawn. A connecting service via Chennai four days in a week has been introduced. The revised schedule would come into effect from February 15 and remain till March 24. The standalone fl ights operating on the Tiruchirapalli- Singapore sector would now originate from Chennai and operate on the Chennai- Tiruchirapalli-Singapore/ Singapore-Tiruchirapalli- Chennaisector. This also brings four additional fl ights to Chennai a week, thereby making it a daily service for the airline on the Tiruchirapalli-Chennai sector. But the Tiruchirapalli- Dubai service has been reduced to four fl ights a week from six. The fl ights would operate on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays and Saturdays, the sources added. Although the number of fl ights operating via Tiruchirapalli was said to have come down by just two fl ights due to the changes, the city has lost three direct fl ights a week to Kuala Lumpur, two fl ights to Dubai and the once-a-week service to Mumbai. The Tiruchirapalli-Mumbai service, gaining in popularity leading to demands of increase in frequency, has been withdrawn as the aircraft was essentially sent to Mumbai for maintenance requirements. Now that the aircraft would be operated from Dubai, the fl ight stands cancelled, the sources added. It may be recalled that only in December; the airline had withdrawn and curtailed 10 fl ights, reducing the number of services from 34 to 24 a week. According to T H Radhakrishnan, Station Manager, Air India Limited, here, said the changes have been made “keeping in view crew availability”, sources attribute them to the increase in the mandatory rest period for pilots between fl ights under the new civil aviation requirements, he added.