Air India suspends flights from Mumbai to New York

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Air India has decided to discontinue its flights from Mumbai to New York's John F Kennedy airport because of poor demand. It had commenced direct services from Mumbai to New York in December 2018.

Air India officials said that the operation was causing losses to the airline.

However, the airline will continue to operate direct flights from Mumbai to Newark.

Air India had shut its services in February temporarily because of Pakistan's airspace closure. The services were expected to resume in June.

The spokesperson told Hindustan Times that they won't be resuming the services because of poor load factor and low seat occupancy.

The official added that Air India has not included the flight in their winter schedule. The flight usually starts from the third week of October and continues till the second week of March in the next year.

AI operates Boeing B777-ER aircraft to operate flights to Newark, Washington, Chicago (from Hyderabad via Delhi), San Francisco and New York from Delhi.

On the other hand, the flying time of US-bound flights saw an increase of three hours as they are being re-routed via Mumbai or Ahmedabad which has, in turn, led to heavy losses.

The national carrier, Air India is under the debt of Rs 50,000 crore, which is why the iconic Air India building in Mumbai might soon be the new address for offices of the Maharashtra secretariat as the state government has offered the national airline Rs 1,400 crore to take over the property.

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Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from Agencies