The Hindu Business Line : Air India to focus more on domestic sector

Air India is to give more thrust to the domestic sector services according to a draft review currently under way to study the future requirements of the national carrier beyond 2011.

Addressing mediapersons, the Air India Chairman and Managing Director, Mr V. Thulasidas, said that there had been a tremendous growth of passengers in the domestic sector and the new flight review beyond 2011 will provide more importance to this sector.

The review will be submitted to the Government in two months, he said.

Air India had expanded its fleet 15 years ago and it did not review the fleet till now and as a result, the aircrafts have become older.

He said the company did not want to repeat the same mistake of not giving fresh orders and so it is looking beyond 2011 when the present purchase order will be completed.

The physical integration of the two airlines is expected to complete in 12-18 months.

The merged company will look for becoming a member of a global alliance to bring more benefit to passengers.

Global alliance

Star Alliance, Sky Team and One World are the three global alliances in the world and Air India will become a part of one of the alliances, he said adding, that a formal announcement in this regard will be made in the next two months.

The passengers will be able to use the network of alliance partners and passengers enjoying frequent flyer status with one airline would be able to avail it on other alliance partners, he said.

Expansion of fleet

The company has ordered 111 aircrafts for 2011 and it will become one of the fastest growing airline company in the world.

“Even this would prove inadequate considering the growth rate of the aviation industry in the country,” he said.

The company is also in the process of introducing more services to the Gulf sector from Kozhikode after the Haj season by adding 13 more flights.

On the recent cancellation and delay of flights from the Gulf sector, the CMD clarified that there were certain external factors such as climatic conditions, inadequate infrastructure facilities in an airport, duty time limits of pilots and airport congestion are some of the reasons that went beyond the control of the company.

However, the company is trying to address these issues seriously; he said and sought the co-operation of passengers to provide undisrupted flight services in future.