Coronavirus Pandemic: Air India Cancels All Flights to Kuwait, Curtails Services to Italy, France, Spain

Air India has decided to cancel all its flights to Kuwait till April 30 and curtail services to various other countries, including Spain, France and Sri Lanka. The move comes a day after the national carrier announced a temporary suspension of its services to Rome, Milan and Seoul, amid the coronavirus pandemic which has triggered the imposition of travel restrictions by various countries across the globe. An airline official said all flights operating to and from Kuwait have been cancelled till April 30.

"The existing curtailment of services to Seoul (South Korea), Rome and Milan (Italy) too has been extended till April 30," he added. "In view of the prevailing fettle due to pandemic / COVID-19, the market planning has taken feedback from respective stations and based on their recommendations, some of the flights to various international destinations are being temporarily suspended while the frequency of other services are being reduced accordingly," the official said.

Air India at present operates to Kuwait from Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Goa and Mumbai. As per the revised flight schedule, Air India would operate only two flights on the Delhi-Madrid-Delhi route up to April 30, in place of the existing three. The third flight would remain cancelled between March 17 and April 28, the official said.

On Wednesday, the government decided to suspend all visas, except a few categories such as diplomatic and employment, from March 13 to April 15. Similarly, of the seven flights per week between Delhi and Paris now, the carrier has cancelled four services between March 16 and March 30. The other three flights will remain operational up to April 30, he said.

The air services to Frankfurt from New Delhi have also been scaled down to three per week from seven now between March 16 and April 30 while the Mumbai-Frankfurt services have been restricted to twice a week from March 18 to April 30 from four flights now, he added.

Starting March 15, Air India will operate only two flights per week on the Delhi-Tel Aviv-Delhi route as against four services at present, the official said, adding even these two services on the route will not operate on March 15 and 16.

AI 275 on the Mumbai-Colombo route and the return flight will operate only twice a week between March 17 and April 30, the official said.