The Hindu Business Line : Air India plans through check-in facility at 5 cities

New Delhi, July 18 The newly merged state-owned airline Air India would offer seamless through check-in facility for passengers travelling from Delhi, Mumbai and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York from August 1 and extend the facility to Chennai and Kolkata airports from October 1 this year.

In effect, this would mean that passengers would be able to complete check-in of their bags and receive a boarding card for their final destination at any of the five airports. This emerged at a review meeting on the merger of Air India and Indian chaired by the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, here.

The meeting also decided that the Regional Jets being leased would be used for full service operations and not low-cost operations being planned by the airline. Initially, the airline plans to lease four Regional Jets that would be mainly used to operate flights in the north-eastern part of the country.

Operating codes

Meanwhile, the Ministry has received the Air Operators Certificate for Air India and Indian that would allow the operating codes of both the airlines to exist for some more time.

“Generally, one airline company is allowed one code. But with the Ministry receiving the AOC, both the IC and AI codes would exist for at least one year. This would provide time for the airlines to integrate their IT platforms and ensure that travel agents do not have any problem in making a booking on either domestic or international flights being operated,” an airline official said.