European airlines fly shy of Indian cities

Hit by slowing demand due to the economic crisis, several European carriers are suspending flights to Indian cities.

Hit by slowing demand due to the economic crisis, several European carriers are suspending flights to Indian cities.

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Finnair has ‘temporarily’ stopped its Mumbai-Helsinki direct flight from May till mid-October. Virgin Atlantic’s Mumbai-London flight will be suspended from May 3, while British Airways is cancelling its London-Kolkata direct flight from March-end.

“There has been excess capacity in the India-Europe sectors. These airlines used to carry a lot of onward transatlantic passengers where demand has shrunk,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO (India), Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), a global aviation consultancy. No airline has cancelled flights to Delhi.