Air India closes its office at Kanpur

Kanpur, Jun 4: Air India has closed its office at Ahirwan airport here and transferred all employees to Lucknow, almost a year after the national carrier stopped flight services from Kanpur to New Delhi, a senior airport official said today.

"We have received the order yesterday to close the office," Director, Airport Authority of India in Kanpur, Wasim Ahmed told PTI, saying Air India has transfered all staff to its Lucknow office.

He said Air India had stopped its services from Kanpur to New Delhi and vice versa on July 4, 2014.

"However, the airport will remain open for chartered operations besides operations of BSF and Army aircraft," Wasim said.

The Air India flight services from New Delhi to Kanpur and vice versa were started in September 2007 at the initiative of former Union minister Sriprakash Jaiswal but were later stalled in July last year, citing the maintenance reasons.

Earlier, the flights were functional six days a week from the Ahirwan airport but later citing fall in the number of passengers, Air India, since October 2013, started running its services two-days a week with the number of seats also decreasing from 72 to 48.

"Many private airlines have been asked to start their services from Kanpur but they seem more interested in operating from Amausi airport in Lucknow, around 80 kms from here," the AAI officer said.

PTI