Latest news with #PanAm
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Beloved major airline is finally flying again - but it will cost you £45,000 for a seat
This week, for the first time in 34 years, a Pan Am aircraft touched down in the UK - its tail adorned with the airline's instantly recognisable 'blue globe' logo, glistening in the Stansted sunshine. The Boeing 757, with only business-class seats, had crossed the Atlantic carrying more than just passengers – it brought with it a wave of jet-set nostalgia. Pan Am – officially Pan American World Airways – was once the epitome of glamour in the skies. Founded in 1927, it revolutionised international air travel and came to symbolise American sophistication and ambition. With white-gloved service, lobster dinners, onboard lounges and elegant cabin crew in crisp blue uniforms, flying Pan Am wasn't just about getting from A to B, it was an experience. The airline was a status symbol for celebrities, diplomats, and the global elite. It pioneered long-haul international travel, operated the first regular transatlantic and transpacific services, and introduced the world to the Boeing 747. At its peak, Pan Am flew to more than 80 countries and became the very image of the Golden Age of aviation. The sight of stylish flight attendants strolling arm-in-arm with dashing pilots caused a stir in terminals around the world. But by 1991, Pan Am had collapsed – undone by financial troubles, deregulation and the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. Now, Pan Am is back – at least in spirit. American tour operator Criterion Travel, in partnership with private jet specialist Bartelings, has launched a 12-day ultra-luxury itinerary for the super-rich, reviving the Pan Am name for an immersive nostalgia trip like no other. The 'Tracing the Transatlantic' journey follows the early routes of the original Pan Am flying boats, from New York to Bermuda, Lisbon, Marseille, London, and Foynes in Ireland – each stop a luxurious tribute to a bygone era. Guests – just 35 of them – travel aboard a plush 757 named Yankee Clipper II, a nod to one of Pan Am's most famous flying boats. On board, vintage boarding music from the 1970's plays, cabin crew don original uniforms (complete with pillbox hats), there's an open bar and the service is straight out of the airline's glory days. Even the menus tip their hat to the past: caviar was served between Bermuda and Lisbon – though sadly, the famous chateaubriand carved at your seat is no longer an option (carving knives no longer welcome on aircraft). In Foynes, passengers get to visit the Flying Boat Museum, home to the world's only B-314 flying boat replica – once a mainstay of Pan Am's 1940s fleet. At other stops, talks have been given by past crew members reliving their younger days in the sky. Flight attendant Anna Maria Aevarsdottir, who normally flies for Icelandair, joined the project for the chance to step back in time. 'When we put on the uniform in the morning, we feel like we're part of something much bigger,' she said. 'The Pan Am women were icons of their time, very elegant, capable and adventurous. We feel really proud to be carrying on their legacy across the Atlantic.' She and her colleagues prepared by watching Pan Am documentaries, listening to aviation podcasts, and even binge-watching the Pan Am TV drama starring Margot Robbie. Among the passengers were three former Pan Am flight attendants – one even brought her original uniform and wore it to dinner. Two other travellers, sisters, were retracing their own family history: their father began his Pan Am flying career on the flying boats and retired piloting the 747. Texas couple Phil and his wife Quito Bailey are seasoned travellers but have relished this unusual odyssey. 'The most magnificent experience we've ever had travelling,' said Phil. 'We are running out of adjectives to describe it.' While not all aboard had a personal connection to the airline, Craig Carter, CEO of the revived Pan American World Airlines brand and host of the journey, summed it up: 'If they weren't Pan Am fans when they boarded, they're Pan Am true blue now.' The fare for the nostalgic all-inclusive trip? A sky-high $60,000 (£43,500) per passenger. And that's just the beginning. A 21-day Transpacific journey is planned for later this year, priced at an eye-watering $95,000 (£75,000), with a round-the-world tour coming in 2027 to mark Pan Am's 100th anniversary. For those not quite ready to splurge on that kind of airfare, more accessible tributes to the airline's legacy are in the works. A new Pan Am-themed hotel is set to open in California next year. The Pan Am Experience is an immersive dining event in LA where you can enjoy Pan Am service without leaving the ground, and talks are underway about future commercial flights. The iconic 'blue globe' is back in action – reviving the memory of when flying truly was half the fun.
National Post
4 days ago
- Business
- National Post
Pan Am nostalgia takes flight under new ownership
A small gaggle of former Pan American World Airways flight attendants stood by a window in Terminal 7 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, craning their necks and holding up phones. There were a few audible gasps and a soft cry of 'Oh gosh, there it is' as the plane came into view. Several of the women teared up as the jet finally slid past the window, its fin bearing the unmistakable cobalt-blue meatball of the Pan Am logo. Article content Article content The former flight attendants — and several dozen fellow passengers — were at JFK to board the plane, a chartered Boeing 757 that's being billed as a 'Pan Am journey by private air.' Over 12 days the plane will travel from New York to Bermuda and then on to Lisbon, Marseille, London, and Shannon, Ireland, before returning to New York City. The plane itself, which has capacity for 50 passengers, features fully reclinable lie-back seats, personal devices from which to stream entertainment options, as well as an open bar and chef-prepared meals served by attendants dressed in full Pan Am regalia. The trip cost US$59,950 per person for double occupancy, $5,600 more for single occupancy. Article content Article content Article content The flight to Bermuda isn't quite the first to wear the iconic Pan Am badge since the pioneering airline folded in 1991; a previous owner dabbled in launching a few routes in 2006. But it's the maiden voyage under Pan Am's new owners: Chief Executive Officer Craig Carter, who's led luxury travel-planning companies, and four other investors with backgrounds in hospitality and event marketing. They bought the Pan American World Airways trademark last year with the intention of reviving one of the most storied brands in airline history. Article content What Carter and his fellow investors had purchased in February 2024 was essentially a licensing operation. There are Pan Am watches by Breitling and Timex; you can buy branded T-shirts and sweatshirts; and the name had been on a gin and vodka distillery, among other things. Most of those efforts are very much ongoing, but almost immediately the new ownership began planning a high-end luxury tour. 'We knew this would be a good way to get a plane back in the air,' Carter says. 'That was one of our main objectives.' Article content The trip itself was put together by Bartelings, a company that specializes in tours by private aircraft, and Criterion Travel, a tour operator that plans high-end trips for alumni organizations, museums and similar groups. Its six stops were part of Pan Am's first two trans-Atlantic routes, which the airline began flying commercially in 1939. The group is set to stay at hotels including the Fairmont Hamilton Princess & Beach Club in Bermuda, the Four Seasons in Lisbon and the Savoy Hotel in London. The last stop, in Shannon, is built around a visit to the Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum, which features a full-size replica of a Boeing 314 'flying boat,' the famous Pan Am Yankee Clipper.
Vancouver Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Pan Am nostalgia takes flight under new ownership
A small gaggle of former Pan American World Airways flight attendants stood by a window in Terminal 7 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, craning their necks and holding up phones. There were a few audible gasps and a soft cry of 'Oh gosh, there it is' as the plane came into view. Several of the women teared up as the jet finally slid past the window, its fin bearing the unmistakable cobalt-blue meatball of the Pan Am logo. The former flight attendants — and several dozen fellow passengers — were at JFK to board the plane, a chartered Boeing 757 that's being billed as a 'Pan Am journey by private air.' Over 12 days the plane will travel from New York to Bermuda and then on to Lisbon, Marseille, London, and Shannon, Ireland, before returning to New York City. The plane itself, which has capacity for 50 passengers, features fully reclinable lie-back seats, personal devices from which to stream entertainment options, as well as an open bar and chef-prepared meals served by attendants dressed in full Pan Am regalia. The trip cost US$59,950 per person for double occupancy, $5,600 more for single occupancy. Plan your next getaway with Travel Time, featuring travel deals, destinations and gear. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Travel Time will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The flight to Bermuda isn't quite the first to wear the iconic Pan Am badge since the pioneering airline folded in 1991; a previous owner dabbled in launching a few routes in 2006. But it's the maiden voyage under Pan Am's new owners: Chief Executive Officer Craig Carter, who's led luxury travel-planning companies, and four other investors with backgrounds in hospitality and event marketing. They bought the Pan American World Airways trademark last year with the intention of reviving one of the most storied brands in airline history. What Carter and his fellow investors had purchased in February 2024 was essentially a licensing operation. There are Pan Am watches by Breitling and Timex; you can buy branded T-shirts and sweatshirts; and the name had been on a gin and vodka distillery, among other things. Most of those efforts are very much ongoing, but almost immediately the new ownership began planning a high-end luxury tour. 'We knew this would be a good way to get a plane back in the air,' Carter says. 'That was one of our main objectives.' The trip itself was put together by Bartelings, a company that specializes in tours by private aircraft, and Criterion Travel, a tour operator that plans high-end trips for alumni organizations, museums and similar groups. Its six stops were part of Pan Am's first two trans-Atlantic routes, which the airline began flying commercially in 1939. The group is set to stay at hotels including the Fairmont Hamilton Princess & Beach Club in Bermuda, the Four Seasons in Lisbon and the Savoy Hotel in London. The last stop, in Shannon, is built around a visit to the Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum, which features a full-size replica of a Boeing 314 'flying boat,' the famous Pan Am Yankee Clipper. The tour does its level best to evoke the 'golden age' of air travel. Flight attendants, borrowed from Icelandair (hiring and training crews for the tour isn't yet in the cards) wore replica Pan Am uniforms, complete with hats and white gloves. When the small crew stopped to pose for pictures with pilots in dapper uniforms outside the terminal, they drew a crowd almost immediately. Their neat updos and spiffy uniforms have the instant effect of conjuring up a time when travel was exciting, a bit glamorous, full of possibility. Flyers might feel as though they're on a movie set. Around the elegant group, travelers in sweatpants, plastic slip-on sandals and scruffy ponytails shuffled toward the security line. The customized 757 holds about 30 spacious rows of first-class seats. The aisle is wide, but sadly there's no seatside chateaubriand service — a hallmark of first-class Pan Am travel, when flight attendants would famously carve meat on the spot. Plenty of champagne, however, will be on offer. None of the legs of this trip will be longer than seven hours, but should a passenger want to fall asleep, they could completely recline their seat. (The restroom is, well, just an airplane restroom with elevated finishes. For now it's more than enough. Carter says they had no trouble filling the plane for this trip. A significant portion of the guests who bought tickets have a connection to Pan Am that goes back decades; several were flight attendants or the children of pilots. Debbi Fuller of Langdon, New Hampshire, was a flight attendant from 1980 to 1989. She'd shown her husband the brochure for the trip last winter, laughing at the five-figure price tag. He surprised her by telling her to book it, she says: 'He said, 'I'm 83. I can't take it with me. I know how much Pan Am meant to you. And I lost that much in the stock market last week anyway.'' Fuller's husband stayed home ('his travelling days are over'), but she's used to solo trips, and her excitement at this one was obvious. She'd brought her uniform with her (it needed only a few minor adjustments to fit) and planned to wear it in Bermuda. The Pan Am alumni network is a remarkably active one. A foundation raises money to support a museum, which along with a podcast and YouTube channel is a repository for stories and memorabilia chronicling the airline's history, from its first flight (a mail boat from Key West to Havana in 1927) to becoming a juggernaut that dominated air travel, pioneering routes from the US to places all over the world. Despite not having worked together for at least 30 years, many crew members maintain close ties, says Wendy Knecht, a former flight attendant who was invited to join the first leg of the trip as part of her work with the Pan Am Museum Foundation. 'Of all the jobs I've ever had, we feel like we're family.' (Even today, Knecht says, she frequently channels her Pan Am identity: 'If I have people over for dinner, I just pretend I'm doing the first-class galley. We used to throw parties there every day.') But Carter, Pan Am's new CEO, is betting there's an appetite for Pan Am nostalgia that goes well beyond the ranks of former crew members. And there's evidence not too far away from where the plane started this new journey: The TWA Hotel, in the Eero Saarinen-designed former terminal at JFK, is a jet-age time warp with restaurants, a shop and a rooftop bar and swimming pool. Across Europe and Asia, ultraluxe train trips, which hearken back to an even earlier age of high-style travel, are selling out with price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars for a few days aboard. Pan Am has also joined the ranks of a select few travel operators, including the Four Seasons and Abercrombie & Kent, which are betting that luxury jet travel is appealing to a demographic that will pay as much as $198,000 to fly with just a few dozen fellow travellers to a series of destinations where bespoke itineraries have been planned to the last detail. Another Pan Am private jet journey is already in the works. Next April passengers will be able to trace the trans-Pacific route on a 21-day trip that stops in Tokyo; Siem Reap, Cambodia; Singapore; Darwin and Sydney, Australia; Auckland; and Nadi, Fiji. That one will cost $94,495 per person for double occupancy, $9,500 more for a single. But if that price tag is out of reach, Carter and his partners don't plan to leave you out in the cold. A Pan Am hotel is planned for a shopping centre near Los Angeles, and soon you'll be able to book an evening on the city's relaunched Pan Am Experience , which Carter calls 'dinner theatre' aboard a grounded airplane where the theme is 1970s Pan Am glamour. If all you want is one of the famous tote bags, Carter says that unfortunately those won't be for sale to the general public. If you find yourself in South Korea, however, there are still 14 stores there that sell nothing but Pan Am merchandise. The true dream for Pan Am is to be an airline again, Carter says. It's begun the costly and painstaking process of figuring out how to relaunch — and finance — regularly scheduled service. And while it's early days, the company has already secured a call sign from the Federal Aviation Administration: Clipper.
Toronto Sun
4 days ago
- General
- Toronto Sun
Pan Am nostalgia takes flight under new ownership
A hotel is planned for a shopping centre near LA, and soon you'll be able to book an evening on the relaunched Pan Am Experience Published Jun 24, 2025 • Last updated 10 minutes ago • 6 minute read Seats on the new Pan Am flight. Photo by Elizabeth Angell / Bloomberg Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. A small gaggle of former Pan American World Airways flight attendants stood by a window in Terminal 7 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, craning their necks and holding up phones. There were a few audible gasps and a soft cry of 'Oh gosh, there it is' as the plane came into view. Several of the women teared up as the jet finally slid past the window, its fin bearing the unmistakable cobalt-blue meatball of the Pan Am logo. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The former flight attendants — and several dozen fellow passengers — were at JFK to board the plane, a chartered Boeing 757 that's being billed as a 'Pan Am journey by private air.' Over 12 days the plane will travel from New York to Bermuda and then on to Lisbon, Marseille, London, and Shannon, Ireland, before returning to New York City. The plane itself, which has capacity for 50 passengers, features fully reclinable lie-back seats, personal devices from which to stream entertainment options, as well as an open bar and chef-prepared meals served by attendants dressed in full Pan Am regalia. The trip cost US$59,950 per person for double occupancy, $5,600 more for single occupancy. The flight to Bermuda isn't quite the first to wear the iconic Pan Am badge since the pioneering airline folded in 1991; a previous owner dabbled in launching a few routes in 2006. But it's the maiden voyage under Pan Am's new owners: Chief Executive Officer Craig Carter, who's led luxury travel-planning companies, and four other investors with backgrounds in hospitality and event marketing. They bought the Pan American World Airways trademark last year with the intention of reviving one of the most storied brands in airline history. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. What Carter and his fellow investors had purchased in February 2024 was essentially a licensing operation. There are Pan Am watches by Breitling and Timex; you can buy branded T-shirts and sweatshirts; and the name had been on a gin and vodka distillery, among other things. Most of those efforts are very much ongoing, but almost immediately the new ownership began planning a high-end luxury tour. 'We knew this would be a good way to get a plane back in the air,' Carter says. 'That was one of our main objectives.' The trip itself was put together by Bartelings, a company that specializes in tours by private aircraft, and Criterion Travel, a tour operator that plans high-end trips for alumni organizations, museums and similar groups. Its six stops were part of Pan Am's first two trans-Atlantic routes, which the airline began flying commercially in 1939. The group is set to stay at hotels including the Fairmont Hamilton Princess & Beach Club in Bermuda, the Four Seasons in Lisbon and the Savoy Hotel in London. The last stop, in Shannon, is built around a visit to the Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum, which features a full-size replica of a Boeing 314 'flying boat,' the famous Pan Am Yankee Clipper. Plan your next getaway with Travel Time, featuring travel deals, destinations and gear. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The tour does its level best to evoke the 'golden age' of air travel. Flight attendants, borrowed from Icelandair (hiring and training crews for the tour isn't yet in the cards) wore replica Pan Am uniforms, complete with hats and white gloves. When the small crew stopped to pose for pictures with pilots in dapper uniforms outside the terminal, they drew a crowd almost immediately. Their neat updos and spiffy uniforms have the instant effect of conjuring up a time when travel was exciting, a bit glamorous, full of possibility. Flyers might feel as though they're on a movie set. Around the elegant group, travelers in sweatpants, plastic slip-on sandals and scruffy ponytails shuffled toward the security line. The customized 757 holds about 30 spacious rows of first-class seats. The aisle is wide, but sadly there's no seatside chateaubriand service — a hallmark of first-class Pan Am travel, when flight attendants would famously carve meat on the spot. Plenty of champagne, however, will be on offer. None of the legs of this trip will be longer than seven hours, but should a passenger want to fall asleep, they could completely recline their seat. (The restroom is, well, just an airplane restroom with elevated finishes. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. For now it's more than enough. Carter says they had no trouble filling the plane for this trip. A significant portion of the guests who bought tickets have a connection to Pan Am that goes back decades; several were flight attendants or the children of pilots. Debbi Fuller of Langdon, New Hampshire, was a flight attendant from 1980 to 1989. She'd shown her husband the brochure for the trip last winter, laughing at the five-figure price tag. He surprised her by telling her to book it, she says: 'He said, 'I'm 83. I can't take it with me. I know how much Pan Am meant to you. And I lost that much in the stock market last week anyway.'' Fuller's husband stayed home ('his travelling days are over'), but she's used to solo trips, and her excitement at this one was obvious. She'd brought her uniform with her (it needed only a few minor adjustments to fit) and planned to wear it in Bermuda. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The Pan Am alumni network is a remarkably active one. A foundation raises money to support a museum, which along with a podcast and YouTube channel is a repository for stories and memorabilia chronicling the airline's history, from its first flight (a mail boat from Key West to Havana in 1927) to becoming a juggernaut that dominated air travel, pioneering routes from the US to places all over the world. Despite not having worked together for at least 30 years, many crew members maintain close ties, says Wendy Knecht, a former flight attendant who was invited to join the first leg of the trip as part of her work with the Pan Am Museum Foundation. 'Of all the jobs I've ever had, we feel like we're family.' (Even today, Knecht says, she frequently channels her Pan Am identity: 'If I have people over for dinner, I just pretend I'm doing the first-class galley. We used to throw parties there every day.') This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But Carter, Pan Am's new CEO, is betting there's an appetite for Pan Am nostalgia that goes well beyond the ranks of former crew members. And there's evidence not too far away from where the plane started this new journey: The TWA Hotel, in the Eero Saarinen-designed former terminal at JFK, is a jet-age time warp with restaurants, a shop and a rooftop bar and swimming pool. Across Europe and Asia, ultraluxe train trips, which hearken back to an even earlier age of high-style travel, are selling out with price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars for a few days aboard. Pan Am has also joined the ranks of a select few travel operators, including the Four Seasons and Abercrombie & Kent, which are betting that luxury jet travel is appealing to a demographic that will pay as much as $198,000 to fly with just a few dozen fellow travellers to a series of destinations where bespoke itineraries have been planned to the last detail. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Another Pan Am private jet journey is already in the works. Next April passengers will be able to trace the trans-Pacific route on a 21-day trip that stops in Tokyo; Siem Reap, Cambodia; Singapore; Darwin and Sydney, Australia; Auckland; and Nadi, Fiji. That one will cost $94,495 per person for double occupancy, $9,500 more for a single. But if that price tag is out of reach, Carter and his partners don't plan to leave you out in the cold. A Pan Am hotel is planned for a shopping centre near Los Angeles, and soon you'll be able to book an evening on the city's relaunched Pan Am Experience, which Carter calls 'dinner theatre' aboard a grounded airplane where the theme is 1970s Pan Am glamour. If all you want is one of the famous tote bags, Carter says that unfortunately those won't be for sale to the general public. If you find yourself in South Korea, however, there are still 14 stores there that sell nothing but Pan Am merchandise. The true dream for Pan Am is to be an airline again, Carter says. It's begun the costly and painstaking process of figuring out how to relaunch — and finance — regularly scheduled service. And while it's early days, the company has already secured a call sign from the Federal Aviation Administration: Clipper. NHL Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls World Other Sports
Euronews
20-06-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Pan Am plane lands in Lisbon on luxury flight for aviation nostalgics
If you saw a Pan Am aeroplane in the skies over Lisbon this week, you weren't seeing a ghost. A special commemorative Pan Am flight passed over the Portuguese capital on Thursday. The plane, which was flying the Tracing the Transatlantic route, landed yesterday evening at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport, where it will remain until Saturday. This flight attempts to recreate the company's historic routes. It left New York on Tuesday, then passed through Bermuda before arriving in Lisbon. Also on the itinerary are the cities of Marseille in France, London in the United Kingdom and Foynes in Ireland. Its return to New York is scheduled for 28 June. In the Portuguese capital, passengers stayed at the Ritz Hotel and experienced an evening of fado music. This is a dream trip for those nostalgic for the golden days of transatlantic aviation. The 50 or so passengers are travelling in business class, eating chef-cooked meals and drinking at an open bar, just like in the old days. All, of course, served by stewardesses in the company's iconic blue uniform. The price of the tickets also predates the era of low-cost aviation, around €52,000 per person. Even so, those responsible for organising the nostalgia trip say they weren't difficult to sell. Pan American World Airways used to be the largest US airline operating international flights, but went bankrupt in 1991. Then, last year, businessman Craig Carter and other investors bought the brand. For now, they're reviving it by selling merchandise and luxury travel experiences like this one. For this first trip, they used an Icelandair aeroplane, which was suitably adapted, and also the company's crew. Air India is facing disruptions following last week's fatal crash as additional safety inspections on its Dreamliner fleet have led to flight delays, cancellations and growing passenger anxiety. India's aviation safety regulator ordered deeper checks on Boeing 787 aircraft operated by the airline soon after its London-bound flight crashed during take-off in Ahmedabad city on 12 June, killing at least 270 people, including 241 passengers and crew. The precautionary inspections, as well as the closure of airspace in some Middle Eastern countries, have strained Air India operations across domestic and international routes. Since the crash, Air India has cancelled operations for 83 wide-body flights, including 66 Dreamliners, according to data shared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India's aviation safety regulator. In a statement late Wednesday, Air India said wide-body aircraft service would remain curtailed by 15 per cent until mid-July because of the unfolding conflict in the Middle East and the additional inspections. The airline said it would inform affected passengers and try to accommodate them with alternate flights. The 'curtailments are a painful measure to take, but are necessary,' the airline said. The airline is performing an even greater number of checks than required, which has had a cascading impact on operations, a company executive familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorised to speak to the media. The airline said in its statement that it has decided to also inspect all of its Boeing 777 aeroplanes in its fleet, even though that model wasn't involved in the crash. The cuts in the flight schedule will allow Air India to keep more planes in reserve to deal with any unplanned disruptions. The company on Tuesday announced the cancellation of multiple flights, including one from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick. Another flight from Delhi to Paris was cancelled when a mandatory pre-flight check raised an issue, the airline said in a statement. The issue was not identified. In a statement Tuesday, the aviation directorate said surveillance conducted on Air India's Dreamliner fleet so far has found no 'major safety concerns.' The aircraft and their associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards, the directorate said, adding that of the 33 planes, 24 have completed the inspections, while four were undergoing long-term maintenance. The rest were expected to finish the safety checks soon. The regulator advised the airline to 'strictly adhere to regulations," and asked it to strengthen internal coordination across engineering, operations and ground handling units and ensure adequate availability of spares to mitigate flight delays. Experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are probing the crash with assistance from the UK, the US and officials from Boeing. Some aviation experts see the crash as a temporary setback for Air India as it transforms from a financially troubled state-owned carrier to a privately owned company with ambitions for broad expansion. 'If you ask me whether the accident will derail the ambitious growth plans, no way. There can be no looking back,' said Jitender Bhargava, a former Air India executive director. The company has already placed huge orders for new aircraft. Its present challenge is to boost the morale of employees and passengers through confidence-building measures, Bhargava said. 'The faster you make people forget this one-off accident, the better it is,' Bhargava said. Indian conglomerate Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, returning the debt-saddled national carrier to private ownership after decades of government control. The $2.4 billion (€2 billion) deal was seen as the government's effort to sell off loss-making, state-run businesses. It was also in some ways a homecoming for Air India, which was launched by the Tata family in 1932. Since the takeover, Air India has ordered hundreds of new planes worth over $70 billion (€61 billion), redesigned its branding and livery and absorbed smaller airlines Tata held stakes in. The company has additionally committed millions of dollars to digital overhauls of aircraft and refurbishing the interiors of more than five dozen legacy planes.
