Air India Express withdraws Tiruchi - Chennai service

Communicates withdrawal in the revised winter schedule of flights

February 17, 2017 01:43 am | Updated 01:43 am IST - TIRUCHI

Air India announces withdrawa of its Tiruchi_Chennai_Tiruchi leg of flight service.

Air India announces withdrawa of its Tiruchi_Chennai_Tiruchi leg of flight service.

At a time when there is clamour for improving domestic air connectivity from Tiruchi, the national carrier Air India Express has withdrawn its daily service to Chennai from here.

The withdrawal of the Chennai – Tiruchi – Chennai leg of the Air India Express has been announced in the revised winter schedule of the airline at Tiruchi from February 15 to March 25. The airline has already communicated the withdrawal of the services to and from Chennai in the revised winter schedule of flights to the stakeholders concerned in Tiruchi.

The airline had been operating the service to Chennai from here after arrival of its international flight (IX 681) from Singapore.

In the return direction, the airline operated from Chennai to Tiruchi and to Singapore from here (IX 682). The flights used to carry domestic passengers as well.

The airline recently announced that the Chennai – Tiruchi and Tiruchi – Chennai leg of its Singapore – Tiruchi and Tiruchi – Singapore international flight service “stands withdrawn” from February 15. However, the airline has decided to connect Tiruchi with Thiruvananthapuram with effect from February 19.

The Singapore – Tiruchi (IX 681) and Tiruchi – Singapore (IX-682) services would be extended to and from Thiruvananthapuram only on Sundays. Barring Sundays, the aircraft upon arrival at Tiruchi would be stationed here and then leave for Singapore. The service from Thiruvananthapuram to Tiruchi would be in the evening and it would head back to Thiruvananthapuram after an hour’s halt here.

The Air India Express operates Boeing 737-800 aircraft with over 180 seating capacity for its services to Singapore from here. Presently, Chennai is the lone domestic destination connected by air from Tiruchi with Jet Airways and Air India Express operating daily services.

With Air India having withdrawn the service now, the Jet Airways has become the lone carrier to operate services to Chennai. However, the Jet Airways operates ‘ATR’ type aircraft which is smaller in size as compared to the Boeing aircraft operated by the Air India Express.

Airline sources said the Tiruchi – Chennai – Tiruchi leg of the Air India Express had good patronage. The airline could have withdrawn the service to Chennai due to operational reasons, sources said.

Although Tiruchi has more international flights than domestic operations as compared to other non-metro airports in the State, travel bodies have been consistently seeking improvement of air connectivity to cover more domestic destinations from here.

Representations had been made for operating services to major cities such as Bengaluru and Mumbai from Tiruchi.

In addition to Singapore, Air India Express also operates daily flights to Dubai and Sharjah from the Tiruchi airport.

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