Maharaja heads down under

After a delay of six months, Civil Aviation Minister grants permit to AI to start operations to Melbourne

For those who were planning to fly to Australia, namely Melbourne, there's some good news.

The national carrier Air India will begin its flights to the land down under after the civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi took cognisance of the complaints of the unions and passed the permit after a six-month delay.


Complying to a huge demand by Indians, especially students, the civil aviation ministry decided to grant Air India the traffic rights to operate direct flights on the Delhi-Melbourne sector

"The Civil Aviation Ministry has approved our request and granted Air India the traffic rights to operate seven services per week on the Delhi-Melbourne sector," said an Air India spokesperson. However, he maintained that the dates for operations were yet to be finalised.

The approval for operating on Melbourne route was pending with the aviation ministry for almost six months and the services were scheduled to start from October last. There was a huge demand from Indians especially from students who are studying inMelbourne to start the direct flight services.

On February 21, MiD DAY had carried a report (Why were profitable Air India routes closed?) outlining the fact that several unions had complained that Air India had shut their operations on several routes to benefit private airlines.

u00a0In a meeting with Ravi, the different unions of Air India raised the issue after which he asked the national carrier to submit a detailed report explaining as to why operations on the routes were stopped.

Even though the Australian government had granted permission, the civil ministry had failed to allow Air India to begin its services to Melbourne.u00a0 A civil ministry official, had previously said, "Air India might drop the plan citing that the sector is not a profitable one, thereby paving the way for private airlines to operate on it."

MiD Day also spoke to Carly Dixon, spokesperson of Melbourne airport authorities, who then said, "We understand that the date for commencement has been delayed we look forward to welcoming Air India to Melbourne pending final government approval."

Did you know?
Melbourne will be Air India's 34 international city following other cities like Cairo, Frankfurt, Manchester and Washington DC

Fast facts
According to a recent DGCA report, AI has operated fewer domestic and international flights last year than its private competitors. Jet Airways and its subsidiary, JetLite, operated 1,42,101 flights followed by Kingfisher Airlines, which operated 1,20,362 flights, leaving AI at the third spot with only 1,01,352 flights.
In terms of market share too, the national carrier slipped to fourth behind Jet Airways, Kingfisher and IndiGo.