Jet Airways has suspended services to Abu Dhabi and slashed the number of flights to Dubai till March-end. According to a notice from Etihad Airport Services, the airline has cancelled all its flights for operational reasons. It has also stopped Delhi-Dubai flights. “The airline has been committing lessors and vendors regarding payment and has not been able to meet them till now. The airline management is looking to raise funds and clarity would be available in next few days,” said a source familiar with development.
“Jet has proactively undertaken certain operational adjustments to its flight schedule, keeping in mind the likely, yet interim non-availability of some aircraft in its fleet in the foreseeable future. The airline has kept the regulator as well as its guests informed of these changes,” it said in a statement.
As per a code-sharing agreement between Jet and Etihad, the Jet has been carrying passengers from various Indian cities to its Abu Dhabi hub for their onward journey to international destinations on Etihad flights. The halting of Abu Dhabi flights by Jet follows the cancellation of some of its flights from Dubai to Delhi and Mumbai on Thursday.
In a statement, the Indian carrier, beset by the grounding of at least 41 aircraft due to payment defaults to leasing companies, said it had kept India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation and its customers informed of the cancellations.
Air India rejigs some USA and Europe routes
Pakistan which closed its entire airspace on February 27, have since opened it up for very few flights. Every day, they delay the opening of their airspace for overflying flight, and there is no schedule at the moment about when will be the international aviation community be able to use Pakistan’s airspace again. The prolonged closure has significant implications for many carriers that overfly Pakistan to fly west, especially Air India. Air India operates more than 100 weekly flights to the USA and Europe combined, and all of them used to fly over Pakistan. Ever since the airspace closed, all these flights were affected. Flights to the USA became one-stop, initially via Sharjah (for refuelling), and then via Vienna recently.
Air India’s flights to Europe from Delhi travel all the way to the Mumbai waypoint, and continue over UAE to Europe to avoid Pakistan airspace. This has increased the travel time by over an hour each way. Flights to the USA are affected even more, as almost all outbound flights have to make a technical stop for refuelling. In the initial days of airspace closure, all outbound flights to the USA had a technical stop at Sharjah instead of operating non-stop. The inbound journey would operate nonstop.
