Air India Regional to begin flights from Mumbai

by Vinay Bhaskara

An Air India Bombardier CRJ-700 - Image Credit: Nisarg Vyas

According to a report from the Hindu Business Line, Air India subsidiary Alliance Air (Air India Regional) has announced an expansion of its services from Mumbai, with new flights to Allahabad, Agra, and Gwalior.

According to the article, an Air India spokesperson said, “Alliance Air will be introducing new flights and routes on its network from September 9 from Mumbai to Allahabad, Agra and Gwalior.”

Mumbai - Allahabad will operate four times per week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Mumbai-Gwalior and Mumbai-Agra will both operate twice per week; Mumbai-Gwalior on Mondays and Thursdays, Mumbai-Agra on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Inaugural fares for Mumbai-Allahabad are set as Rs 3,979 one way and Rs 8,326 return while Mumbai-Gwalior is set as Rs 2,982 one way and Rs 5,874 return fare. Mumbai-Agra intial fares are Rs 3,979 one way and Rs 8,326 return.

As of August 2013, Air India Regional serves 23 Indian destinations with a fleet of 11 aircraft (4x Bombardier CRJ-700s, and 7x ATR 42-300 turboprops). It operates 233 flights per week, with the largest hub at Delhi seeing 53 weekly departures to eight destinations. Air India Regional does not currently serve Mumbai.

However, Mumbai is the second largest operating base for the Air India Group of airlines (including mainline Air India, Air India Regional, and low cost wing Air India Express), with 464 weekly departures in August 2013 (443 mainline Air India, 21 Air India Express). 

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Video: Air France A380 hits Delta Comair CRJ-700 at New York JFK

Sorry for being out of action, but a combination of summer heat, irregular working hours and even more irregular eating, combined with stress and most likely some dodgy food gave me a most severe case of gastritis and left me in bed for five days. Do these conditions sound familiar to fellow frequent fliers?

Yesterday, an Airbus A380 superjumbo of Air France, the largest passenger aircraft in the world, collided with a Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-700 of Delta Comair, one of the smallest passenger aircraft one would see at New York's JFK airport. The results just demonstrate the laws of physics, and in this Goliath vs. David encounter, Goliath won.


Both aircraft received damage and the A380 has been grounded for now at New York.

Can you imagine yourself in the CRJ. I wonder how Indian TV channels would have reported this one?

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Transport Canada issues Airworthiness Directive for CRJ-100 CRJ-200

Aviation Herald is reporting that

Transport Canada, the Canadian Ministry acting as Aviation Authority, have issued Airworthiness Directive (AD) CF-2008-33R1 on Jan 9th 2009, which addresses the issue of frequent flaps problems encountered on Canadair Regionaljets CRJ-100 and CRJ-200. The airworthiness directive was adopted by the European Aviation Safety Agency EASA on January 13th 2009.

The directive states: "An excessive wear condition was identified regarding end-play between the flap actuator and ball screw. Excessive wear of the screw and ball nut could potentially lead to a flap system jam."

The airworthiness directive replaces an earlier directive CF-2008-33, which had been issued on November 5th 2008.

The Aviation Herald had counted 16 incidents involving flaps problems on CRJ-200s during December 2008 and January 2009 (to date), which raised significant concerns, as stuck flaps produce higher landing speeds, increased required landing distances and thus pose additional risks.

The Aviation Herald asked Bombardier for comment on the flaps issue in early January, however received no reply to date.

In India, JetLite (formerly Air Sahara) operates seven CRJ-200.

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