The Hindu Business Line : Air India Express plans flights from all three centres in Kerala

ALL three international airports in Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Kochi - will be included in the inaugural run of Air India Express, the budget airliner being patronised by the `Maharajah'.

All three will witness an Air India Express flight taking off when the service goes formally on stream in April next, according to Mr V. Thulasidas, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India.

He told Business Line here that the budget airline plan was not confined to the State. Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati would be the other places from where these flights would operate.

"Except that, when we'll be getting a few aircraft to operate in the first phase, the first three will be assigned to Kerala. Air India Express will fly mostly to the Gulf and South East Asia."

According to the plans being worked out by the airline management, there will be two daily flights from the three international airports in Kerala to the Gulf. There will be a daily fight to Dubai from all three stations and three to four flights a week to Abu Dhabi and Muscat.

Increased flight operations being envisaged in this manner will necessitate the setting up of an engineering unit in the State. According to Mr Thulasidas, a considerable number of the Air India Express fleet will come to operate from out of Kerala. This means that some of the engineering work will have to be done from out of the State itself.

Kochi will be a major station for these activities. "Right now, with leased aircraft, our plan is that we'll do what we call `online line maintenance.' The rest in any case will be outsourced. But in due course when we actually purchase the aircraft for Air India Express, we'll need our own in-house engineering facility. Hence the need for an engineering facility." The international carrier has plans to introduce the budget airliner in the Southeast Asia sector also. This will be in addition to the regular Air India flights currently operating in this sector.

Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur will be linked in this manner. Taipei and Seoul are also on the radar.

The budget flights will be operated using smaller aircraft and will have all economy-class configuration. "These flights will have a low-cost structure and a totally different class of operational philosophy. The recruitment process is on for Air India Express," Mr Thulasidas said.