Air India resumes flights to Chicago, Newark

Air India on Monday resumed its Chicago-Mumbai-Chicago and Newark-Ahmedabad flights with a technical stopover at Cairo, while Jet Airways operated Delhi-Toronto and Mumbai-Newark services via Athens.

Air India would also operate a combined flight AI 191/144 on the Delhi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Newark-Mumbai to clear the backlog of passengers between India and New York.

Kingfisher has cancelled its flights to London from Delhi and Mumbai.

The Air India also resumed its non-stop flights through alternative routes on the Mumbai-New York-Mumbai and Delhi-New York-Delhi sectors on Monday, days after services were grounded due to volcanic plumes that made air-traffic impossible in European airspace.

Boeing 777-200 LR flights will operate through alternative routes owing to closure of the European Airspace, a press release in New Delhi said.

As there is a backlog of passengers due to flight cancellations over the past few days, the company has asked passengers to make enquiries with its call centres before proceeding to the airport.

The airline has set up a dedicated team of officers at Delhi and Mumbai airports to assist stranded passengers for re-booking of flights, transfer to other airlines and cancellation of tickets, it said.

To address the problems arising out of the situation whereby air passengers have been stranded in India due to the disruption of most west bound flights, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has set up a Control Room to coordinate among Ministry of External Affairs, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the airlines flying out of India. The Control Room is functioning from 8 AM to 8 PM. It will be functional till the crisis is over.

As per latest information available with the DGCA, 41,435 passengers are affected at Mumbai and Delhi Airports. Air India and Jet Airways have started rerouted flights to America through Egypt and Greece. The backlog of passengers is expected to be cleared in the next few days.

The Ministry is also coordinating with the various agencies for latest information regarding possibility of flights to different countries of Europe, which is presently almost completely closed off.

The Ministry has impressed upon the airlines to facilitate the passengers departures and onward travel and not to exploit the presently adverse situation by overcharging either them or other airlines that transfer passengers to them. This will be closely monitored during this period.

The Ministry wishes to advise all passengers to postpone their travel plans particularly to destinations in Europe unless it is for emergent purposes and absolutely necessary.

Fax Nos. / Phone No. of the Control Room are as under:-

Fax No. Office of

24655839 Joint Secretary

24653446 Director

24610364 Under Secretary

Phone No. of Control Room is 24632950 Extn. 2333