Kolkata: United Airlines flights between cities in the US and India have suffered collateral damage in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Several UA flights scheduled to fly from Mumbai and Delhi have been cancelled following the closure of Russian airspace that has increased flight time, resulting in higher fuel burn. The sudden cancellation has left several hundreds of passengers, including scores from Kolkata, in the lurch.
While sources in the industry said this was because the flights had become unviable as they had to fly nearly two hours more to circumvent Russian airspace, the airline has scheduled new flights on the sector for which tickets need to be purchased afresh.
“The earlier flights were under open skies policy. But since the Indian government hasn’t opened scheduled commercial international flights yet, the airline has reverted to the air bubble agreement and introduced these flights,” an industry official said.
Notwithstanding the parlance in which the airline schedules the new flights, passengers are now having to pay more. “The airline is not accommodating economy class passengers who had purchased the flight tickets at lower prices,” a travel agent said.
Santoshpur resident Subir Kumar Bandyopadhyay, who was scheduled to fly from Mumbai to Newark on the United flight on March 10 with his wife Janhabi, was shocked when he learnt that the flight had been cancelled. “The airline did not inform us of the cancellation. The officials were unreachable. We had booked the tickets in November 2021 and were looking forward to visit our son Bargab in Jersey City after four years when he called on Friday morning to inform us that the flight status showed it was cancelled,” recounted Bandyopadhyay.
Travel agent Joydeep Mukherjee was able to get two tickets on the same day on Emirates Airlines flight to JFK via Dubai. “There were only two economy class seats available at Rs 1.65 lakh each which I issued for them . Now all seats are closed,” said Mukherjee.
The Galileo booking portal for travel agents is displaying several cancelled flights over the next several days. In nearly all of them, there are other flights assigned but since tickets are more expensive, all those earlier booked in economy class have to make their bookings afresh or opt for a later travel date when the revised fare is on par with the cost of the tickets they had purchased.
Sources in the industry said that direct flights from Mumbai and Delhi were the ones hit.
Several UA flights scheduled to fly from Mumbai and Delhi have been cancelled following the closure of Russian airspace that has increased flight time, resulting in higher fuel burn. The sudden cancellation has left several hundreds of passengers, including scores from Kolkata, in the lurch.
While sources in the industry said this was because the flights had become unviable as they had to fly nearly two hours more to circumvent Russian airspace, the airline has scheduled new flights on the sector for which tickets need to be purchased afresh.
“The earlier flights were under open skies policy. But since the Indian government hasn’t opened scheduled commercial international flights yet, the airline has reverted to the air bubble agreement and introduced these flights,” an industry official said.
Notwithstanding the parlance in which the airline schedules the new flights, passengers are now having to pay more. “The airline is not accommodating economy class passengers who had purchased the flight tickets at lower prices,” a travel agent said.
Santoshpur resident Subir Kumar Bandyopadhyay, who was scheduled to fly from Mumbai to Newark on the United flight on March 10 with his wife Janhabi, was shocked when he learnt that the flight had been cancelled. “The airline did not inform us of the cancellation. The officials were unreachable. We had booked the tickets in November 2021 and were looking forward to visit our son Bargab in Jersey City after four years when he called on Friday morning to inform us that the flight status showed it was cancelled,” recounted Bandyopadhyay.
Travel agent Joydeep Mukherjee was able to get two tickets on the same day on Emirates Airlines flight to JFK via Dubai. “There were only two economy class seats available at Rs 1.65 lakh each which I issued for them . Now all seats are closed,” said Mukherjee.
The Galileo booking portal for travel agents is displaying several cancelled flights over the next several days. In nearly all of them, there are other flights assigned but since tickets are more expensive, all those earlier booked in economy class have to make their bookings afresh or opt for a later travel date when the revised fare is on par with the cost of the tickets they had purchased.
Sources in the industry said that direct flights from Mumbai and Delhi were the ones hit.