Air India offers special fares to Jet Airways' international passengers

Mumbai, Apr 19: Coming to the rescue of the stranded international passengers hit by the abrupt grounding of Jet Airways, government-run Air India on Thursday offered special fares to such passengers. Air India will lease at least five Boeing 777 planes from the temporarily suspended Jet Airways and operate flights to London, Dubai and Singapore.

The "special stranded" fares have been offered to passengers at overseas airports such as Paris, London Heathrow, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Dammam, and Muscat, among others, Air India said in a statement.

"As a gesture of goodwill and to mitigate the hardship of the 9W (Jet Airways flight code) at international stations, Air India will be offering special fares to such passengers," it said.

IATA said, "Passengers who purchased Jet tickets through IATA-accredited travel agents are advised to submit their refund only through them as soon as possible. The travel agent will then liaise with IATA and Jet to process the refund."

Jet has also said that passengers will need to contact agents, portals, or the airline website for refunds.

After flying for over 25 years, Jet Airways was grounded on Thursday night when its final flight, a Boeing 737, touched down at the Mumbai airport after departing from Amritsar.

However, the airline stopped its international operations from 11 April, leaving its passengers in the lurch at several international airports across across the world.

On Thursday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said it will ask the cash-strapped Jet Airways (India) Ltd for a concrete and credible revival plan after the airline decided to temporarily suspend all flight operations. The decision would be taken under the relevant regulations in an attempt to restart the airline's suspended operations.