By IANS,
New Delhi : Domestic flight operators Thursday said their Mumbai flights were operating as per schedule but some of the international airlines cancelled their services to and from the terror-hit western Indian metropolis.
India’s leading private carrier Jet Airways said it had neither cancelled nor clubbed any of its Mumbai flights following the terror strike that claimed at least 101 lives.
Kingfisher Airlines, another major private airline, is clubbing its Mumbai flights as many passengers are not travelling. The Bangalore-based airline has pooled about 10 flights to and from Mumbai, said Prakash Mirpuri, a spokesman for the UB Group that controls the carrier.
“We are obviously reviewing our flight schedules in and out of Mumbai, because I’m not so sure that everybody is going to jump on a plane to Mumbai right now,” Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya told television news channel CNBC TV-18.
Budget airline SpiceJet said it had stepped up security at its offices across the country.
“SpiceJet flight operations are not impacted by the unfortunate incidents in Mumbai,” the airline’s chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal said in a statement.
“We are offering all passengers who have missed their flights or chosen not to take these from Mumbai, to Mumbai or via Mumbai, a choice of either rescheduling their flights or total refund or creating a credit shell with us. No change fee will apply on any of these transactions,” Aggarwal added.
The state-run Air India also said its flights from the city were on schedule.
However, some international airlines said they were monitoring the security situation in Mumbai to determine whether they should cancel flights in order to protect passengers and crew.
Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air France-KLM and the US’ Northwest Airlines have cancelled their flights early Thursday as their crew were not able to reach the airport from hotels, Mumbai International Airport Ltd’s general manager for corporate communications Manish Kalghatgi said.
Kalghatgi, however, added that the city airport was operating normally.
Cathay Pacific Airways of Hong Kong said it will fly as per the normal schedule to Mumbai. The airline operates 10 flights to Mumbai every week.
British Airways, which operates two flights from London everyday, said it would operate as per normal schedule.