Dutch airline KLM is veg-only on India flights

Jul 22 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Dutch airline KLM is veg-only on India flights

Saurabh Sinha

New Delhi:





Air India may have been roasted on social media for recently going allvegetarian in economy class of its domestic flights, but it now emerges the Maharaja is not the only one doing so.Royal Dutch Airline KLM serves veg meals to economy class passengers on its IndiaAmsterdam flights. Unlike AI's short domestic flights that can at most be three hours long, the flying time between Delhi and Amsterdam is almost eight hours.Nandini Guha, an associate professor at Delhi University, discovered this fact to her surprise while visiting Europe last winter. “I flew Delhi-Amsterdam-Copenhagen on the way out and flew back from Helsinki via Amsterdam. I was travelling economy class and KLM did not serve non-veg meals on its flights to and from Delhi.We were given the option of choosing either Italian veg or Indian veg, which made me wonder why give a choice at all if it is between one veg and another veg? Even alcohol was not served and we were given only juice,“ Guha, who is in DU's department of English, said.
Confirming its veg-only policy for budget flyers, a statement by KLM said: “On flights from Delhi to Amsterdam, as part of first service, we serve vegetarian meal in economy class. Whereas for breakfast , we offer an option to the customer to choose between vegetarian meal or a spinach omelette, in business class, passengers have both choices of vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals.The meals served on board are reviewed from time to time and shortlisted as per the demand from our customers.“
KLM currently has a daily flight on Delhi-Amsterdam route and will start flying on Mumbai-Amsterdam from this winter.
Economy class passengers get the option of booking a la carte meals for an extra cost on the AmsterdamDelhi route.

Jul 22 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Indian airlines lobby against UAE carriers

New Delhi: TNN





The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has written to the government against allowing Dubai-based Emirates and flydubai to operate more flights between Kerala and the Gulf during the seasonal travel months of August and September.IndiGo, Jet, SpiceJet and GoAir are members of FIA. Every year there are complaints of fares shooting up on south India-Gulf routes during peak travel season due to a demand-supply mismatch.“We have learned from the travel trade in Dubai that Emirates and flydubai plan to operate additional flights to Kerala in the months of August and September 2017, ostensibly to cater to peak season traffic.... The UAE carriers should not be allowed to operate additional flights in excess of their capacity entitlements as the existing capacity entitlements adequately cater to the traffic demand between lndia and Dubai. The carriers of both sides are using entitlements fully, deploying in excess of 130,000 seats per week in each direction between lndia and Dubai,“ FIA wrote to the aviation ministry.