Air India on Saturday said it will operate additional flights to Britain and the US to clear the huge backlog of passengers at various airports after the European airspace was closed for nearly a week following a volcanic eruption.
From Sunday, the airline will operate a Mumbai-London-New Delhi flight with a 342-seater Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft followed by a New Delhi-London-Mumbai service on Monday, an Air India spokesperson said.
On Tuesday, another flight will operate on the Mumbai-Hyderabad-Frankfurt-Chicago sector and back.
Thousands of flights to and from the US, Canada and Europe were disrupted as the European airspace was closed after huge volumes of ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland spread over a wide area.
Soon after the European airspace was declared open on April 21, Air India started plans to operate additional flights. It began operations with flights between Mumbai and London on Friday.
Seven Air India aircraft personnel and their crew were stranded at airports around the world. These included two each in London and New York, and one each in New York, Chicago and Newark.
To bring them back, non-stop flights between India and the US were resumed on April 18 using an alternative route over southern Europe.
{{/usCountry}}To bring them back, non-stop flights between India and the US were resumed on April 18 using an alternative route over southern Europe.
{{/usCountry}}The airline said it had made arrangements for re-booking stranded passengers.