Air India is busy drawing up aggressive expansion plans that should lead to the launch of many new international routes and a raft of new orders for more than 50 additional aircraft.
Air India has been working on merging with fellow state-owned carrier Indian Airlines for months and legal formalities have all but been completed now. National Aviation Company has been set up as a holding company for the two airlines and their subsidiaries, and a full integration will probably take up to two years. In the meantime the enlarged carrier, which will eventually operate only as Air India, is putting together proposals for the purchase of a large number of additional aircraft.
Chairman and managing director V Thulasidas says that "about 60" new aircraft may be ordered to support replacement and growth requirements and to help the enlarged airline compete with privately owned Indian operators and foreign carriers that have been boosting services to India. Network expansion studies are also under way, and there are plans to join an alliance, most likely the Star Alliance.
The government has said that the enlarged carrier will be more attractive to a multilateral alliance and talks have been taking place with all the major groupings. Star is known to be Air India's first choice and detailed discussions are under way with the hope that it will be invited to join before the end of this year.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel says the carrier's fleet expansion studies will be looked at by the government in the coming weeks after proposals are submitted. Airbus and Boeing aircraft will be considered, he says, including the ultra-large Airbus A380.
Both Air India and Indian have already been modernising and expanding their fleets, Air India with firm orders for 68 new aircraft from Boeing and Indian Airlines with firm orders for 43 new narrowbodies from Airbus. The group fleet now comprises around 110 aircraft with the remaining Airbus and Boeing aircraft on order due to be delivered through 2011.
Air India's network expansion plans are currently focused on non-stop services to the USA. It launched Mumbai-New York JFK non-stop services at the beginning of August and later this year non-stop flights are due to be launched between Delhi and New York as well as to other US cities.
Source: Airline Business
