New Delhi, April 18: Southern Europe has become the saviour of Indian carriers operating flights to the United States in view of closure of Western European airports on account of volcanic ash clouds. Air India announced on Sunday that it would resume its nonstop flights to New York from New
Delhi and Mumbai from Monday through the “southern route”, which means that its planes will overfly countries like Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal to reach the US, instead of the traditional trans-Atlantic route via northern Europe.
This move comes in the wake of Jet Airways resuming its flights to the US by flying over southern Europe. Jet Airways announced that it had received permission from the directorate-general of civil aviation to use Athens as a “technical transit point” for refuelling to operate flights to the US and Canada. The airline usually operates flights to London and to the US and Canada via Brussels. But with western European airports shut, Jet had sought permission to fly via Athens. Aviation sources said Jet could also soon seek permission for passengers to disembark in Athens, so that they could reach destinations such as London and Brussels via the European land route.
Airlines have chosen the southern European route even if it means higher fuel costs and more flight time since losses could further mount in case of more cancellation of flights.
Jet Airways had already begun flights to the US (Newark) and Canada (Toronto) from Saturday via Athens. This continued on Sunday as well. The airline also announced its flight schedule for Monday.
Operation of flights through an alternate route will also ensure that aircraft do not get stuck at airports in the US and Canada and that the clearing of the backlog of stranded passengers would begin.
Sridhar Kumaraswami
