The Hindu Business Line : Air India mulls low cost service on long distance routes

MR S. RANGANATHAN (left), Executive Director-Ground Services and COO, AIATSL, exchanging documents with Mr Karmjit Singh (right), COO, Singapore Airport Terminal Services Ltd, in the presence of Mr V. Thulasidas, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, and Mr Ng Chin Hwee, President and CEO, Singapore Airport Terminal Services Ltd, in Chennai on Wednesday. — Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai May 2 Air India is desirous of offering a low cost service on long distance routes, perhaps through its low cost subsidiary, Air India Express, the airline's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr V. Thulasidas, said today.

At present, Air India Express offers flights to major international destinations within a distance of around 4 hours from different cities in India. Most of the flights are quick-turn-around flights with a ground time of around 1-hour at the destinations.

Noting that Air India Express was doing "extremely well," Mr Thulasidas said the subsidiary had plans for many short haul routes, but said that a long distance service was also being thought of. He did not give out details of which routes they would be — the service is still on the drawing board.

Mr Thulasidas was here in connection with the signing of a joint venture agreement with Singapore Airport Terminal Services Ltd (SATS) for providing ground handling services at the upcoming Bangalore airport.

Air India Express, whose services mainly connect Indian cities to Singapore and Dubai, plans to extend its operations to Kaula Lumpur and Bangkok soon.

Mr Thulasidas said that Air India also intended to start `business jet' services - both on `on charter' as well as on `schedule' basis. These would be relatively smaller jets with all-business class seats. "This is still an idea— we have to work on it," he said.

Chopper service costly

Would Air India launch a chopper service? Much as it would like to, there did not seem to be a great demand for it, Mr Thulasidas said. He noted that the airline did have a helicopter service between Nariman Point and the airport but there were not many takers as it was very expensive. On the proposed `maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO)' service, Mr Thulasidas said that Air India had an agreement with Boeing, under which the US aircraft manufacturer had committed to investing $100 million in India. Apart from this, Air India would also set up another MRO facility for engine repair and overhaul - the partner would be either GE, or Pratt & Whitney or CFM. Asked where the `engine MRO' project might come up, he said that Mumbai, where Air India has some lands, was a good possibility. Air India will take a decision this year on which alliance to join, Mr Thulasidas, said. Today there are three major alliances in the global airline industry — Star, SkyTeam and Oneworld. (An alliance is an arrangement for co-operation among airline companies to streamline inter-airline travel and offer common benefits.) Admitting that by not being part of an air alliance Air India was at a disadvantage, Mr Thulasidas said that the airline was waiting for the merger of Air India-Indian to happen before deciding on which alliance to join.