Speaking recently at the update and outlook meeting of the PATA India
chapter, Lohani said that aviation and tourism goes hand in hand. “Air
India still has a lot of legacy issues which needs to be resolved. There
were two different carriers merged in 2007 and it brought a lot of
issues. There were many differences between the two companies in terms
of work culture, areas of operation, compensation, working conditions,
entitlements etc. We want to settle these issues. We are looking at
consolidation and expansion both. In the last one year between December
2, 2015 and December 1, 2016, we added four new international
destinations which is a big thing for any international carrier - Delhi -
San Francisco, Delhi - Vienna, Ahmedabad - London – Newark, Delhi
–Madrid routes. We are waiting for the arrival of few aircraft; some
787s are arriving. 777s will come in the first quarter of 2018. We plan
to try to fix some new destinations. We plan to fly to six new
destinations in 2017 i.e Washington, Toronto, Tel Aviv, Stockholm, Kenya
or any other destination in Africa. We are looking at Frankfurt –
Mumbai route. We have got the requisite clearances for direct
international flights to Singapore and Bangkok from Chandigarh and they
have been scheduled to take off before the end of March 2017. We are
looking at adding six new international destination in 2017 and another
six in 2018,” Lohani said and added that apart from 8 eight aircraft
which is coming, we are also looking at at least inducting five more new
wide body aircraft.
On the domestic side, Lohani agreed that having old fleet is one of the problems. “We have to retire these aircraft. We are adding 14 aircraft to our fleet in 2017. We have an order for 22 right now. The basic plan is to induct 100 aircraft between now and March 2020 to take the total fleet size to 230 from the current 132. We are working on Connect India programme of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. We have got eight ATRs. We will have a total of 23 ATRs by December 2017. We are looking at connecting Jaipur- Bikaner, Jaipur - Jaislamer, Bhopal – Indore –Raipur - Jabalpur. We will be launching similar operations from Mahrashra and Karnataka and all this is going to happen in 2017. We are looking at making Bengaluru or Hyderabad a hub for ATRs,” Lohani informed.
He said that the domestic expansion will be taken care of by Alliance Air. “It’s a regional airline. We expect it to turn around in 2017-18. We are very aggressive on that,” he added. He informed that Air India is going to launch first garland flight of India. In January this year, the carrier will launch Kolakata- Raipur- Indore- Ahmdeabad- Jaipur – Delhi flight which will star flying in return direction the next day. “We are looking at Dehradun, Pant Nagar, Lucknow, Bhopal, Patna,” he said adding that airline is a tough business, very different from hotel. “We posted an operational profit Rs 105 cr last year. This year we hope that operating profits be couple of hundred crores,” Lohani opined.
To Read the News in Full 23/01/17 Murari Mohan Jha/Travel Trends Today
On the domestic side, Lohani agreed that having old fleet is one of the problems. “We have to retire these aircraft. We are adding 14 aircraft to our fleet in 2017. We have an order for 22 right now. The basic plan is to induct 100 aircraft between now and March 2020 to take the total fleet size to 230 from the current 132. We are working on Connect India programme of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. We have got eight ATRs. We will have a total of 23 ATRs by December 2017. We are looking at connecting Jaipur- Bikaner, Jaipur - Jaislamer, Bhopal – Indore –Raipur - Jabalpur. We will be launching similar operations from Mahrashra and Karnataka and all this is going to happen in 2017. We are looking at making Bengaluru or Hyderabad a hub for ATRs,” Lohani informed.
He said that the domestic expansion will be taken care of by Alliance Air. “It’s a regional airline. We expect it to turn around in 2017-18. We are very aggressive on that,” he added. He informed that Air India is going to launch first garland flight of India. In January this year, the carrier will launch Kolakata- Raipur- Indore- Ahmdeabad- Jaipur – Delhi flight which will star flying in return direction the next day. “We are looking at Dehradun, Pant Nagar, Lucknow, Bhopal, Patna,” he said adding that airline is a tough business, very different from hotel. “We posted an operational profit Rs 105 cr last year. This year we hope that operating profits be couple of hundred crores,” Lohani opined.
To Read the News in Full 23/01/17 Murari Mohan Jha/Travel Trends Today
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