The airline on revamp mode, to add 100 new aircraft by 2020
Poised with the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) of the National Civil Aviation Policy, Air India is set to bid for connecting 23 routes with the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). Some of its existing routes would also be brought under the ambit of the RCS, said Ashwani Lohani, Chairman and Managing Director. To keep pace with the growing competition in the international airspace, the national carrier will be inducting 100 more aircraft, including few Boeing 787 in 2017, some Boeing 777 (in Q1, 2018),13 new wide-body planes in next two years and 12 A320 neo aircraft are expected in 2017, taking the total aircraft count from 132 to 232, by March 2020.
To be more competitive in the international airspace, the airline has a slew of measures planned being a member of Star Alliance. The carrier has come up with a wish list of six new destinations to offer connections in 2017. These destinations are Washington (USA), Toronto (Canada), Tel Aviv (Israel), Stockholm (Sweden) or Copenhagen (Denmark), African region and Frankfurt (Germany).
Further, to offer enhanced connectivity, flight frequencies are likely to be increased to Madrid, Sydney and Melbourne. Going ahead in the year, the long neglected subsidiary Alliance Air will be given a push to post profits from the current financial year, and the reach of Air India Express will be expanded. In addition to this next year will see the addition of another six new destinations to the carrier’s network.
For the RCS to gain ground, Air India would require 20 more ATRs and to service this influx of additional aircraft and new routes, the carrier would need 200 new pilots, said Lohani. For this, the recruitment process of pilots has been set in pace. In this regard, the fleet size is likely to be expanded by 23 ATRs, taking the total count to 72 by December 2017.
Another development on the domestic front would be a garland flight starting from Kolkata in the morning and connecting Raipur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Delhi, in that order, by month end. On the return leg, next day, the flight will cover the entire route from Delhi. Besides, the newly inducted Dreamliner will be deployed on the proposed Delhi-Kochi-Dubai route, starting from February 1. Lohani said that both Delhi-Kochi and Kochi-Dubai are high density routes, and therefore he expects high yields and load factors.
Air India has set a target of achieving On-Time Performance (OTP) record of 78 to 80%. However, the operational and fleet related complexities of Air India are needed to be considered while comparing it with other airlines in India and abroad. No other airline company has nine different types of aircrafts, many operate only to select metro cities. Air India, on the other hand, operates to Tier II cities as well as highest number of international destinations.
