Air India starts direct flights between Delhi and Port Blair

New Delhi: Gearing up to advancing competition and much to the delight of holiday-makers, national carrier Air India has introduced a direct flight between Delhi and Port Blair, with a stopover at Bhubaneswar.
The Delhi-Port Blair link will meet the longstanding requirement for more seamless connectivity between the national capital and the Andamans, said the airlines today, adding flight AI 9603/9604 will operate on all days of the week except Saturday on the 70-seater CRJ-700 aircraft.
The flight will take-off from Delhi at 0520 hrs to land at Bhubaneswar at 0730 hrs, and from there take-off at 0800 hrs to arrive at Port Blair at 0935 hrs. The return flight will leave Port Blair at 1005 hrs and reach Bhubaneswar at 1140 hrs. It will take-off from Bhubaneswar at 1210 hrs and arrive in Delhi at 1420 hrs.
So far passengers could travel to Port Blair from Kolkata and Chennai only.
In addition to this, Air India is increasing capacity on the Delhi-Guwahati sector with the introduction of AI 9611/9612. The flight, also to be operated with a CRJ-700 aircraft will operate six days a week – Monday to Saturday.
The Guwahati flight will take-off from Delhi at 1500 hrs and reach Guwahati at 1715 hrs, leave Guwahati at 1745 hrs to reach Delhi at 2000 hrs.
The flights to be operated by Air India subsidiary ‘Alliance Air’, are expected to give good connectivity to passengers arriving from northern and western India or those arriving from abroad and travelling to Port Blair and Guwahati.
Conveniently timed and oriented towards catering to the increasing demand from the Capital to the Eastern region, the afternoon flight on the Delhi-Guwahati-Delhi route will cater to the same day return traffic on this route, according to Air India.
A variety of fares are available on the new service, including special promotional fares, and fares to stimulate LTC travel, it added.