India: Air India strike upsets expats’ vacation plans

The vacation travel plans of many Indian expatriates in Kuwait have gone haywire following the ongoing strike by the Air India pilots as India’s flag carrier sharply curtailed its schedules to south Indian destinations. Many passengers booked on Air India now look for alternative airline bookings paying exorbitantly high fares as India’s carrier was forced to reduce its weekly flight schedule from five to three. While officials claim that the airline maintains a truncated schedule despite the agitation, it has halted booking for July from Kuwait.
“The pilot strike is something that is beyond our control. Still, we are operating three weekly flights from Kuwait in place of five to south Indian destinations. Currently, we manage to accommodate about 70 percent of the passengers on the same day itself they are booked. The backlog is being adjusted in subsequent flights. We are also rerouting some of the passengers via Chennai on Indian Airlines fights,” an Air India official told the Kuwait Times on condition of anonymity. Read article