Airlines increase flights out of pandemic-ravaged India to bring citizens home
Air India plans to up weekly options to the US, while Korean Air and Asiana Airlines will charter aircraft
30 April 2021 - 12:31
byPR Sanjai and Kyunghee Park
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International and domestic airlines are adding flights out of India to bring home residents and citizens as the nation’s coronavirus outbreak goes from bad to worse.
Air India plans to increase its weekly frequency of flights to the US to 32 starting May 11, up from the current 29. That compares with about 33 weekly flights before Covid-19.
Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are planning to charter flights from India to help South Koreans there wanting to return. Both carriers, which had previously halted all scheduled services to the South Asian nation because of the pandemic, are working with regulators to finalise the flights’ details.
India now has the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 caseload with 18.8-million confirmed instances. The nation set another record on Friday with 386,452 additional cases. Deaths rose by 3,498 to 208,330.
The political and financial capitals of New Delhi and Mumbai are in lockdown and this week the US told its citizens to get out of India as soon as possible.
The ferocious surge in new cases has also reversed one of the airline industry’s biggest travel comebacks. Carriers in India had reached 87% of their prepandemic seat capacity through early April, based on a Bloomberg analysis of data from flight tracker OAG, but that progress has now unravelled led by a pullback in domestic flights, which make up most of the market.
As the outbreak overwhelms the nation’s hospitals and crematoriums, an upturn in air travel won’t take place until the latest crisis is contained, Rob Morris, the head of consultancy at UK aviation advisory firm Cirium, said earlier this week.
The US released a level 4 travel advisory, the highest of its kind issued by the state department.
“US citizens are reporting being denied admittance to hospitals in some cities due to a lack of space,” the website of the US Embassy and Consulates in India said in a health alert.
All routine US citizen services and visa services at the US Consulate General Chennai have been cancelled.
Bloomberg News. For more articles like this visit bloomberg.com
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Airlines increase flights out of pandemic-ravaged India to bring citizens home
Air India plans to up weekly options to the US, while Korean Air and Asiana Airlines will charter aircraft
International and domestic airlines are adding flights out of India to bring home residents and citizens as the nation’s coronavirus outbreak goes from bad to worse.
Air India plans to increase its weekly frequency of flights to the US to 32 starting May 11, up from the current 29. That compares with about 33 weekly flights before Covid-19.
Korean Air and Asiana Airlines are planning to charter flights from India to help South Koreans there wanting to return. Both carriers, which had previously halted all scheduled services to the South Asian nation because of the pandemic, are working with regulators to finalise the flights’ details.
India now has the world’s fastest-growing Covid-19 caseload with 18.8-million confirmed instances. The nation set another record on Friday with 386,452 additional cases. Deaths rose by 3,498 to 208,330.
The political and financial capitals of New Delhi and Mumbai are in lockdown and this week the US told its citizens to get out of India as soon as possible.
The ferocious surge in new cases has also reversed one of the airline industry’s biggest travel comebacks. Carriers in India had reached 87% of their prepandemic seat capacity through early April, based on a Bloomberg analysis of data from flight tracker OAG, but that progress has now unravelled led by a pullback in domestic flights, which make up most of the market.
As the outbreak overwhelms the nation’s hospitals and crematoriums, an upturn in air travel won’t take place until the latest crisis is contained, Rob Morris, the head of consultancy at UK aviation advisory firm Cirium, said earlier this week.
The US released a level 4 travel advisory, the highest of its kind issued by the state department.
“US citizens are reporting being denied admittance to hospitals in some cities due to a lack of space,” the website of the US Embassy and Consulates in India said in a health alert.
All routine US citizen services and visa services at the US Consulate General Chennai have been cancelled.
Bloomberg News. For more articles like this visit bloomberg.com
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