Air India has cancelled all flights from Birmingham - anyone know why?

feet_up

I booked 2 Air India Business class return tickets from Birmingham to Delhi 9 November - 4 December. I have just been informed that the flight and apparently all direct flights from Birmingham to Delhi have been cancelled and flights now only go direct to Amritsar.

The Air India staff are most unhelpful (and have difficult to understand accent (even from someone with an Indian heritage), so does anyone know why this is and if it is likely to be changed (I did a quick google).

Can anyone suggest the next best option?

I am assuming that my formal complaint to Air India will not bear fruit and I will have to cancel and get money back less a small fee (which is painful considering it is their doing).

Westin

Who informed you?

What is showing in the booking on the Air India website?

IF the flight from BHX is cancelled then I suspect you will just be moved on to another AI service, probably ex LHR.

la531983

Airlines change their routes all of the time, they aren't going to reinstate it because one person has put a complaint in. Looks like the final direct flight is on the 31st October which would tie in with general schedule changes between summer and winter schedules. They certainly wont add them back at such short notice either so arguing about it with lowly paid call centre staff in Bangalore is futile.

If they have cancelled the flight why is a "small fee" involved, if the route has been cancelled it should be full refund territory.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6686606/air-india-has-cancelled-all-flights-from-birmingham-anyone-know-why

Re 'next best options', what outcome are you actually looking for?

As above, it'll be best to work on the basis that the flights won't be reinstated, but the airline has a regulatory obligation to offer you a choice between a full* refund or rebooking under comparable transport conditions (at no extra cost) - obviously if there are no other direct flights on that route you'd need to be pragmatic about alternative routings that would suit you, which could potentially involve different airports, airlines, etc.

*admin fees should only apply if you booked via an agent rather than directly with the airline.

la531983

Ah yes the agent thing didnt cross my mind. And yet another reason why booking direct is ALWAYS the best thing to do, assuming this is what has happened here.

la531983

Just seen on Twitter…simply a case of the new CEO wielding the axe on a struggling airline by consolidating routes….

They are also ending Delhi-Vienna the same week, on top of the already announced Delhi-Copenhagen and Amritsar-London Gatwick routes.

The reason why isn't really important though.

SPD travels 🚄✈️🌉@SPD_travels 2hInfo |

Air India pulling Birmingham-Delhi from Oct 24th.

Tewolde said he’d make radical changes, he’s being true to his word. I wonder what this means for Amritsar-Birmingham too, as surely that’s on borrowed time.

After IndiGo ended UK ops, it’s a tough time right now.