Foreign airlines to operate 2,336 weekly flights to and from 23 Indian cities in current winter schedule

New Delhi: As many as 50 foreign airlines will be operating 2,336 weekly flights to and from various Indian cities during the winter schedule and the number of flights is 9 per cent higher compared to the year-ago period.

The winter schedule that started on October 29, 2023 will continue till March 30, 2024. A total of 80 scheduled foreign carriers will be operating flights to and from 23 stations during the 2023-24 winter schedule compared to 75 overseas airlines that had services in the 2022-23 winter schedule, according to DGCA. The number of weekly services at 2,336 is higher by 9.36 per cent compared to 2,136 flights in the year-ago period.

The total number of seats to be operated on a weekly basis is 5,89,748 in the current winter schedule compared to 5,49,610 seats in the 2022-23 winter schedule. "A total of 2,336 departures per week have been approved to/from 23 stations in India to 50 countries, including Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK and Uzbekistan. The 23 Indian cities include Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Calicut (Kozhikode), Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, and Lucknow.

Others are Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Trivandrum, Tirchy, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam. In the current winter schedule, eight foreign airlines that did not operate in the previous winter schedule will be operating flights. The carriers are Air Peace, Batik Air, Belavia, EL AL Israel, ITA Airways, NeosS.p.a, NOK AIR and Uganda Airlines. Three airlines -- Air Austral, Salam Air and Yemen Airway -- that had operated flights during the previous winter schedule are not operating services in the 2023-24 winter schedule