The Hindu Business Line : Air India all set to fly higher

With the merger of Air India and Indian underway, the merged airline (called Air India) is drawing up big plans to increase its operations, not only domestically but also across the globe.

Symbolically, the new face of the airline was unveiled on August 1, when Air India became the first airline from India to launch a daily non-stop service to the United States. The airline is utilising two of the eight Boeing 777-200 Long Range (LR) aircraft it ordered as a part of the 68-aircraft, $7-billion deal to launch the daily non-stop service between Mumbai and New York.

Boeing for Long-range

By next January, the airline is to receive four Boeing 777-200 LR aircraft, which are capable of flying non-stop between India and the United States. The arrival of the third and fourth Boeing 777-200 LRs will see the airline launch a daily non-stop service from Delhi to New York. The new flight is scheduled to become operational from January 7. The airline also has plans of launching a Bangalore-San Francisco service, which should become operational by next May.

In addition, Air India will also receive three Boeing 777-300 Extended Range (ER) aircraft that can be deployed for a one-stop flight to the United States. The Boeing 777-300s will be utilised to launch scissor operations through Frankfurt which will help passengers from Delhi to travel with AI to Frankfurt and then change to another AI aircraft for the onward journey to Los Angeles.

Similarly, passengers from Mumbai wanting to travel to San Francisco will be able to travel to Frankfurt and change to another AI flight to reach their final destination.

Airbus routes

Air India is also receiving 11 aircraft from the Airbus A-320 family that will primarily be used to operate flights to short- and medium-haul destinations around India. The Airbus A-320 family comprises the Airbus A-320, A-321 and A-319 aircraft. The Airbus aircraft now being received by Air India, form part of a 43-aircraft purchase deal that the erstwhile Indian had signed with the European manufacturer.

The airline plans to use an Airbus A-321 aircraft to launch a second daily flight from both Hyderabad and Chennai to Dubai, apart from introducing a daily flight from Pune to Dubai. In addition, the current Hyderabad-Bangalore-Muscat flight will now operate three times a week between Hyderabad and Muscat, and three times a week between Bangalore and Muscat. Also on the anvil are daily Kozhikode-Sharjah and Kochi-Sharjah flights. The airline plans to introduce many more such flights as more of the 43 Airbus aircraft arrive.

Air India also plans to use the leased Airbus A-330 aircraft being inducted into the fleet to operate on the India-Mauritius-Johannesburg route. The service is expected to become operational by mid-December this year.

As a part of the merger process, the airline has also rationalised its route network. From this year’s winter schedule, the airline’s India-Tokyo and Mumbai-Hong Kong flights will not stop in Bangkok, as they do right now.

Domestic operations

In the domestic sector the airline plans to launch several new flights, restore some that were withdrawn and increase the frequency of some existing ones. Among the new flights planned are daily services on the Chennai-Kochi and Chennai-Pune routes.

In addition, the airline plans to offer five flights a day Delhi-Bangalore, four flights a day from Delhi to Hyderabad and a daily flight between Delhi and Kochi that is currently operated three times a week. The flights are expected to become operational during the forthcoming winter schedule that starts towards the end of October.

Air India has also plans for Air India Express, the airline’s low-cost arm. From October, Air India Express is planning a daily flight not only on the Kochi-Chennai-Kolkata-Chennai-Kochi sector but also on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi-Delhi- Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi route.

On the international stage, Air India Express is planning to launch a three-times a week flight linking Jaipur with Dubai, apart from increasing the frequency between Kozhikode and Dubai, among other routes.

Besides, there are plans of introducing some new routes. The new services being considered by Air India Express include Mumbai-Colombo-Mumbai, Delhi-Port Blair-Phuket and Mumbai-Maldives-Seychelles.

The implementation of this plan could see Air India offer choices across the spectrum. Already, for those wanting to fly non-stop, the airline is offering a premium product on the Boeing 777-200 LR that currently gets a flyer from Mumbai to New York in about 15 hours, while the price-conscious flyer will soon have the option of AI Express, which has plans of increasing its reach both domestically and internationally.