Air India to operate 2 more flights to Jammu and Kashmir

Air India today announced it will operate two additional flights to Srinagar tomorrow and provide free passage to tourists stranded in flood-hit Jammu and Kashmir as several chopper firms joined the multi-agency rescue and relief operations there.

While state-run Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited and private companies like Global Vectra and Himalayan Heli are working alongside the defence forces, private carriers like Jet Airways and IndiGo said they had started flying relief materials to Srinagar on their regular flights.

Air India's offer for free passage back home to stranded tourists was announced after a meeting, chaired by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth and attended by top officials of various ministries including Civil Aviation Secretary V Somasundaran, to discuss the devastation in the state, officials said. "Air India has kept two aircraft ready to join the humanitarian efforts in Jammu and Kashmir, while Pawan Hans and private companies like Global Vectra and Himalayan Heli are working alongside the defence forces," Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju said earlier.

The two widebody, twin-aisled Airbus A-330s, with a capacity of 220 seats, are likely to fly to Srinagar from here medicines, doctors and other relief materials tomorrow, airline sources later said. These two aircraft would operate in addition to the two other scheduled daily flights to Srinagar.

Air India CMD Rohit Nandan said the two special planes have been kept on stand-by and "we are ready to carry passengers or relief materials provided by the government or any NGO free of charge".

Noting that all 17 daily scheduled flights to Srinagar, including those operated by private carriers, were "going on normally", the Air India CMD said the national carrier was "also ready to provide additional capacity" in order to fly passengers and relief materials, including blankets, medicines, bottled water and warm clothing.

Air India and other airlines were also carrying heavy telecom equipment sent by government and private telecom companies. However, he said, "Our activity will begin only when people or materials are brought to the airport", including flood-hit Srinagar.

With most of Srinagar submerged, passengers were finding it extremely difficult to reach the airport and those who were able to make it as well as incoming passengers were not able to leave the airport due to the rising water levels. IAF and civilian choppers and transport aircraft have been undertaking non-stop sorties overnight to carry men and relief material to submerged parts, as mammoth multi-agency rescue efforts were underway in J-K to rescue lakhs of people trapped in flood-ravaged areas.

DGCA had yesterday directed all airlines not to charge anything extra from passengers from Srinagar and Jammu if they rescheduled or cancelled their bookings. They were also asked not to levy any cancellation fee.
Air India, Jet Airways, IndiGo and other carriers today said they had made arrangements to extend the waiver for refund or reissue of tickets as per the DGCA directive.

Meanwhile, no-frill carrier IndiGo said 30 of their Srinagar colleagues were "still missing" as they were living in flood-affected localities. A team of IndiGo staffers made a futile attempt to reach some of their colleagues on a raft, but could not make it, a statement said.

However, they rescued other people, including pregnant women, from the affected areas, the statement added.