A-I cuts services to far east, Gulf

Air-India has curtailed its services from Mumbai to far east and Gulf region and Chennai-Dubai by one flight each per week in view of a drop in the passenger load in the wake of the US-led war in Iraq.

With effect from Tuesday, the airline has cut one flight each per week from Mumbai to Hong Kong, Bangkok-Tokyo, Jeddah, Doha-Bahrain and Chennai-Dubai, an airline spokesman said.

The spokesman said an evaluation of the passenger loads of all flights was undertaken last week and a decision was taken to reduce the frequency by one flight each on these sectors.

Asked if any flights to Hong Kong and Bangkok were cancelled in view of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, the spokesman said flights have been curtailed mainly due to a drop in the load.

"If it was SARS it would have called for more drastic reduction", he said.

A-I will now operate three flights to Bangkok-Tokyo and four services per week to Hong Kong, he added.