Air India Says US Flights Operated as Scheduled Without Major Delays
The airline confirms that its services to and from New York, Newark and San Francisco operated on schedule, despite widespread cancellations and delays across the United States caused by air traffic control communication failures.
MUMBAI, Nov 14: Air India on Saturday said its flights connecting India with the United States continued to operate according to schedule, with no significant delays reported despite widespread disruption to air travel across the country following communication failures at regional air traffic control centres.
In a statement, the airline confirmed that all its flights travelling to New York, Newark and San Francisco had arrived on time early Saturday morning. Departures from these three destinations were also conducted without any major disruption.
The clarification came after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide ground stop on Friday afternoon, temporarily suspending flights because of communication problems affecting regional air traffic control facilities.
The disruption led to substantial interruptions in domestic and international air travel across the United States. According to flight-tracking website FlightAware, more than 2,500 flights were cancelled on Saturday, while hundreds of additional services experienced delays.
The FAA said the temporary restrictions were introduced in response to extraordinary circumstances and safety-related concerns arising from the communication failures.
Despite the situation, Air India maintained that its operations remained largely unaffected by the nationwide restrictions.
“All our flights to and from the US have been operating as per schedule without any significant delay in spite of air traffic getting severely impacted due to the nationwide ground stop in the USA since last night,” the airline said.
The carrier further reiterated that both arriving and departing services at the three major US destinations had maintained their schedules.
Owned by the Tata Group, Air India is currently the only Indian domestic airline operating scheduled passenger services between India and the United States.
The airline’s statement provided reassurance to passengers travelling between the two countries amid widespread uncertainty caused by the aviation disruption.
