Air India flies out over 400 pilgrims, tourists from U'khand

Air India has flown out over 400 pilgrims and tourists from various places in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.
The national carrier has facilitated seats to more than 350 passengers for Chennai and 75 for Odisha, who were stranded at different locations in Uttarakhand, a statement from the Civil Aviation Ministry said.
AI was providing a 50 per cent discount on the basic fare to the passengers on the flights operating out of Dehradun and its officials were in contact with resident commissioners of Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh providing details of availability of seats.

"On the recommendation of resident commissioners of various states, Safdarjung booking office of Air India was issuing tickets for the stranded passengers," it said, adding if no low cost tickets were available, the officials provided confirmed booking ticket at cheap rates to the passengers.
Apart from these, AI has send more staff to manage the heavy rush of passengers at Dehradun. The airline's station manager at Dehradun has been directed to remain available from 6 AM to 7 PM, to facilitate the passengers.
Bookings at Dehradun station were being coordinated with the reservation manager, Delhi for a smooth facilitation over Delhi for onward journey.

Also, the national carrier has extended the working hour at its booking counters at Safdarjung, from 7 PM to 10 PM, in order to clear the last minute rush.
Air India top brass, including CMD Rohit Nandan, donated a day's salary for the aid of the affected people and appealed to all other staffers to make similar contribution, airline sources said.