Air India to Launch Ahmadabad-London-Newark Routes & to expand Fleet size
On July 4th Announcement of launching with new route towards Ahmadabad-London-Newark by Air India, with the aim to connect more global destinations made headlines, and also with the process to expand the fleet size in coming four years. “Air India Chairman and the Managing Director, Ashwini Lohani said that the launching will be of Ahmadabad-London-Newark from 15 August and also the Delhi-Madrid in December. He said it’s purely an act for the Growth Purpose.
The headlines begin in with a programme on the occasion of opening of Al area manager’s office, where Lohani took part for the inauguration with Chief Secretary Antony Desa.
With heading towards Growth in an issue of profitability question, Lohani said that we are launching number of new flights. Due to some facts he said we have already launched flights from Delhi for San Francisco and Vienna. And coming next year are planning to launch five-six more flights, including Washington, Scandinavian countries and Africa.
Fleet Size Expanding
With more queries, on current fleet size he said that at present there were 133 aircraft in the Air India group, whereas in coming next four years there will be 232 planes, also on relaxation in 5/20 rule for launching international operations, the CMD, while welcoming, which will be a benefit for passengers as competition will increase.
Also in a statement he refer the issues related to Dreamliners planes, he said that there was some problems in design in the beginning but was sorted out as well. He said that Air India has ordered 27 Dreamliners and so far received 21 planes and six more are in the pipeline.
On issues with Bhopal on connectivity, he said Al would make its hub in the state so that more flights will originate from here. On asking, it will be Bhopal or Indore, he said presently Air India had more contact with the state capital. In his more discussing issues one of issues for International Flights from Bhopal or Indore, he said that would be not from Bhopal but may be start from Dubai from in near future. For enhancing connectivity from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and boosting tourism in the state, the carrier increasing the planes in its subsidiary, Alliance Air, by inducting ATR planes. Also discussed about Pune stopped flights, he said for Pune efforts are on to get nod for them, and we are also planning to take Hyderabad flight up to Bangalore by October-November end. Even he also admitted about the snags in carrier at Bhopal and said that they were under control now.