Air India to restart Coimbatore-Mumbai flight on Wednesday

COIMBATORE: Air India is all set to resume direct flight services between Mumbai and the city from Wednesday (Sept 9).
The flight will take off from Mumbai at 10.55am and arrive in the city at 12.40pm. It will then depart from the city at 1.30pm and reach Mumbai at 3.20pm.
Air India officials said they would operate Airbus A 320, which could accommodate 162 passengers, on the route.
An official, who didn’t want to be named, said, “Not many people know the first flight that was operated between the two cities some 30 years ago was AI 657 (AI 658 on return journey). It still continues to receive good support from passengers. So, we have reintroduced the flight, which will have 12 business class seats.”
This would be the only direct first flight to Mumbai from the city for now. All the other airlines only offer connectivity with Mumbai with a single stop and a flying time of around 4.5 hours. Indigo had briefly scheduled a flight between the city and Mumbai when flight operations resumed in May-end, but only to discontinue that later.
Air India’s move has brought cheers to many passengers, who have been planning to fly abroad later this month for studies and work. For many, Mumbai is a preferred connection point to take international flights to Europe.
Adhrith M, a postgraduate student who is planning to fly to Amsterdam in October, said, “I was planning take a flight to Chennai, from there to Abu Dhabi and then to Amsterdam. Now, I have a direct flight to Amsterdam from Mumbai, reducing my flying and transit time by seven hours and an entire night.”
City-based C Devanathan, who has to fly to Kenya where he works as a factory manager, said, “From Mumbai there is direct flight to Nairobi, which is much faster and cheaper than options from Chennai.”
Air India had earlier resumed direct flights to New Delhi and Hyderabad from the city.