Air India to let you hop cities in Australia

Air India travellers to Australia can now fly to more than one city on the same ticket, as the state-owned carrier will invoke a rule that allows it to hop cities. Tushar Srivastava reports.

Air India travellers to Australia can now fly to more than one city on the same ticket, as the state-owned carrier will invoke a rule that allows it to hop cities.

The national carrier is utilising the Own Stopover Rights (OSR) on its newly re-launched flights to Australia. OSR is the right to discharge and take on its own traffic that is destined for another city after a stopover.

AI, which re-launched flights to Australia on August 29, is operating flights from Delhi to Sydney via Melbourne and flights to Melbourne via Sydney, using the state-of-the-art Boeing Dreamliner aircraft. In addition, the airline also operates direct flights to these cities.

"AI passengers have the option of a stopover in either Sydney or Melbourne and carry on with the journey on the same booking. A passenger travelling from Delhi has the option for a stopover, say at Sydney, and travel to Melbourne on the same ticket," said an AI official.

"No foreign airline is at present utilising such rights in India and AI is the only Indian carrier to utilise such rights abroad."