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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 2

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has suggested to Air India that it examine the option of having its European hub in Vienna airport rather than targeting only at Munich.

This emerged at an update meeting on the ‘Merger of Air India and Indian’ chaired by the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, here on Thursday. The Air India Chairman, Mr V. Thulasidas, has already met with the Chairman of Munich airport, while senior officials of the airline have met with officials of Lufthansa looking after the airline operations in Frankfurt and Munich airports.

Official sources said that the Ministry suggested Vienna as an alternative for a variety of reasons, including the fact that Air India would require almost half of the bays currently available at Munich airport if it was to set up its European base there.

Meanwhile, Air India, which is to receive more than 16 new aircraft by March next year plans to utilise these to increase non-stop flights to the United States and also improve connectivity to existing points around the globe.

The airline plans to use the Boeing 777-300 Extended Range aircraft to increase frequency on existing route to Europe and the United States, while the smaller Airbus A-321 and Airbus-319 aircraft would be used to link cities within the country and in the Far-East and Gulf region.

The Boeing 777-200 Long Range aircraft would be used to operate non-stop flights to the United States.

From the winter schedule, which begins in October, Air India plans to launch a second daily flight from Hyderabad and Chennai to Dubai using an Airbus A-321 aircraft, apart from operating a daily flight on the Calicut-Sharjah and Kochi-Sharjah sector.

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