In a bid to attract more passengers, starting from 11 January, 2016, Air India will launch daily flights on the Kochi-Dubai sector owing to growing demand from Indians living in the United Arab Emirates.
Currently, more than 300 flights are operated by Air India Express between India and the Gulf nations, and 74 flights operate in and out of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai alone, The Economic Times said.
"Air India will be operating Dubai-Kochi-Dubai sector with brand new A320 aircraft with cap of 180 seats. With this, the flight operating from Sharjah-Kochi- Sharjah would stand withdrawn effective 11 January," Melwin D'Silva, Regional Manager for Gulf, Middle East and Africa operations of Air India, was quoted as saying by The Economic Times.
"Flight AI-934 on Dubai-Kochi sector will depart from Dubai at 1330 hours and arrive in Kochi at 1910 hours local time. While on the return leg, AI-933 will depart from Kochi to Dubai at 0935 hours and arrive in Dubai at 1235 hours local time," he added.
Air India is reportedly offering a promotional fare of AED 330 for a one-way flight ticket and AED 785 for a return-flight. Air India has already started a Ahmedabad-London direct flight from 15 December 2015, according to the airline's official website.
It was earlier projected that Air India would earn the highest revenue of Rs 17,000 crore for the fiscal year 2015-16, according to a report published in Times of India.
Air India also registered a 0.01% increase in passenger revenue and 5% improvement in cargo revenue during the April-September period of 2015, another Economic Times report stated.
