MUMBAI, 27 November 2019: Air India has again pushed back the launch date of Mumbai-Hong Kong service to 29 March 2020.
Earlier the airline confirmed it had settled on an inaugural date in mid-January 2020 following a postponement last May. It blames the postponements on protracted protests that have disrupted Hong Kong for almost six months.
As it stands now the airline will start the daily flight 29 March with a departure from Mumbai at 0820 and an arrival scheduled for Hong Kong at 1635.
The return flight will depart Hong Kong at 1800 and arrive in Mumbai at 2150 according to timetable information provided by Airlineroute.
According to reports in the South China Morning Post, earlier this week, anti-government protests forced airlines to reduce services.
Garuda Indonesia has reduced from 21 flights a week to just four up at least into mid-December. Thai Airways International and Philippine Airlines have each cut one of five daily flights a week to Hong Kong.
Of an estimated 250 flights per week previously scheduled by mainland Chinese carriers about 100 have been temporarily dropped according to the SCMP report.
Cebu Pacific, South Korea’s Jeju Air and Jin Air, AirAsia and India’s SpiceJet also made flight reductions or route cancellations Airlineroute confirmed.
Emirates, which along with China Eastern is one of the 10 biggest airlines operating out of HKIA, also made reductions by downsizing some flights to smaller planes and cancelling a handful of services outright. Fights cuts could continue well into December.
