Air India has made minor changes to its Australian services as a means of cutting back on financial losses.
Revealed this week, the airline will replace its Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne triangular flight with four times weekly direct flights to Sydney and three times weekly flights to Melbourne.
The change will kick in from 16 May and means the airline will no longer fly daily to both cities.
Currently, the carrier flies Delhi-Sydney Melbourne four times weekly and Delhi-Melbourne-Sydney three times weekly.
Air India first launched the daily services from Delhi to Sydney and Melbourne on a single trip in August 2013.
According to the Business Standard, the airline has suffered financial losses on the route because it has been unable to charge a premium for the final destination on the triangular route.
New of the airline’s financial losses in Australia come despite India’s new e-visa system, which was designed to ease travel between the two countries.
Launched in November last year, the e-visa is applicable to 43 markets – including Australia – and allows travellers to apply for a 30-day visa online. Read on
Australia-based Indian representatives said in December, 2,700 more visas were issued compared to the same month the prior year.
In January, the figure rose again, with some 25,023 tourists obtaining a TVoA compared to 1,903 regular visas in January 2014.
Travellers from the United States were the biggest market to take up the new offer, making up 23.71 percent of tourists, followed by Koreans, Russians, Ukrainians and Australians.
Meanwhile, the Air India is also reportedly looking at launching new services in Europe such as Delhi-Madrid-Barcelona and Delhi-Copenhagen-Stockholm.
The flights are yet to be confirmed.
