Air India to fly Pune-Goa from October 30

With traffic in the Pune-Goa sector growing continuously, Air India (AI) has decided to introduce a Pune-Goa-Pune flight from October 30.

The flight from Pune (AI 517) would take off at 12.15 pm and reach Goa at 1.05 pm. The flight from Goa (AI 518) would depart at 1.50 pm and arrive in Pune at 2.40 pm.

“The flight would operate six days a week, except on Saturdays. We would operate Airbus A320 with 20 business class and 125 economy seats,” said AI’s Pune manager, Dhairyashil Vandekar.
According to sources, the lowest fare that AI would charge in this
sector would be about Rs3,385.

Interestingly, AI used to operate flights in this sector, which was stopped about four years ago. At present only Kingfisher operates flights on the Pune-Goa-Pune route.

Aviation experts predicted that AI stands to gain by starting flights in that sector since the festival season is on and plenty of tourists from Pune look forward to travelling to Goa.

AI had earlier announced introduction of Delhi-Pune-Delhi flight from October 30. The flight from Delhi (AI 851) would leave at 5.15 am and reach Pune at 7.05 am. The flight from Pune (AI 852) would depart at 7.45 am and reach Delhi at 9.45 am. This flight will operate six days a week, except Fridays.

AI’s present Pune-Delhi flight (AI 850 at 6.40 pm) will operate from October 30 with the Airbus A321.