Air India Switches Dammam Services to Low-Cost Division

Air India will this week transfer its own flights from Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram to the Saudi Arabian city of Dammam to its low-cost division Air India Express. From April 5 this routes will be flown using Boeing 737-800s of Air India Express under its ‘IX’ code, although Air India’s own ‘AI’ code will also appear as part of a codeshare arrangement. Air India will continue to serve the Saudi city from Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai using its own widebodied aircraft.

The Kochi – Dammam route was previously served once weekly with an Airbus A310 and twice weekly via Kozhikode using a Boeing 747-400 but will now be flown five times weekly, with a couple of flights routing via Thiruvananthapuram. Meanwhile, Kozhikode – Dammam, previously flown twice weekly, will now be served four times weekly.

These flights will be the first by Air India Express into Saudi Arabia, a market of over 3.1 million O&D passengers from India in 2010, up from 2.6 million in 2009.

Schedule:

Kochi – Dammam
IX483/AI5483 COK2330 – 0200+1DMM 738 357
IX482/AI5482 DMM0300 – 1000COK 738 57

Kochi – Thiruvananthapuram – Dammam
IX481/AI5481 COK2125 – 2220TRV2320 – 0200+1DMM 738 46
IX484/AI5484 DMM0300 – 1010TRV1110 – 1205COK 738 146

Kozhikode – Dammam
IX381/AI5381 CCJ0505 – 0715DMM 738 x257
IX382/AI5382 DMM0815 – 1455CCJ 738 x257

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NOTE: Schedule data extracted from Flightbase for week commencing April 14, 2011; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending January 2011.