The Hindu Business Line : Air India looking for strategic alliance with Serbian airline

EXPANSION PLANS: Mr V. Thulasidas, Chairman & Managing Director, Air India, unveiling the refurbished Boeing 747-400 aircraft in Mumbai on Friday. — Shashi Ashiwal

Mumbai June 15 After the merger, it's time to expand for the State-owned carrier Air India. The airline, which already has an arrangement with the Serbian State-owned airline JAT Airways for pilots, is looking to increase its European operations through a strategic alliance with the Belgrade-based airline.

Speaking to newspersons at the unveiling ceremony of Air India's first refurbished Boeing 747-400 aircraft, Mr V. Thulasidas, Chairman and Managing Director of the airline said, 20 pilots of JAT Airways have joined its low-cost carrier, Air India Express, and around 10 others would join in soon.

"JAT has a good flight training school, we would also send our people there," Mr Thulasidas said. On the strategic relationship, he said, Accenture has been appointed as consultant after the Serbian carrier expressed interest on a possible tie-up. However, a final decision will be taken based on the report of the consultants.

Air India is open to various options, including an acquisition of JAT, Mr Thulasidas added. The Serbian national carrier has a fleet of 17 planes, which are a combination of 10 Boeing 737-300s, two Boeing 737-400s, four ATR 72s and one DC-9.

"A tie-up will give us an opportunity to operate in Europe as an European airline, that will normally not be available for an Indian airline," he said.

Air India plans

Regarding plans for the fleet of Air India, Mr Thulasidas said that of the nine 747-400, the six owned aircraft will be refurbished and the remaining three would be returned by early 2008.

Air India will be completing the entire refurbishment process through in-house expertise in the next five months and will be spending Rs 50 crore per aircraft.

The features include new economy seats, cushions and upholstery, i4000 in-flight entertainment system with on-demand audio and video facility among other state of art facilities. International companies that include Thales, Health Tecna, Weber Aircraft LP and Jamco were involved in the whole exercise.

Air France coordinated with all the vendors for overall control of the project and facilitating the Supplemental Type Certificate required for Federal Aviation Administration Approval.

The first refurbished aircraft, christened `Agra', will operate to US destinations — New York, Newark and Chicago.