Tata Group-owned Air India is planning to increase its base within the US and varied cities and is assessing potential new locations, in accordance to information company PTI sources. Currently, the airline operates continuous flights to 5 American cities, that are, Washington, DC, New York, New Jersey, Chicago and San Francisco.
The sources stated the corporate is assessing Los Angeles and Boston as potential new locations for long-haul flights from India. At current, Air India has a code-share partnership with United Airlines.
Air India planning new flights for Los Angeles and BostonÂ
“We are planning to expand (our base) in the US and various cities are being assessed for potential new destinations. So, Boston is one of them, and Los Angeles too is among the cities that are being assessed,” one of many sources stated. “We are weighing other metrics as well,” the supply added.
Starting a brand new vacation spot entails inspecting plenty of components, together with fleet measurement, pilot power and visitors quantity on the route, in accordance to aviation trade specialists. The supply stated present pilot power, coaching of cabin crew and floor employees to be deployed at an airport on the new vacation spot are among the many components that want to be thought-about.
Air India on revival path
A lot of Indian nationals or folks of Indian origin live or working within the US, together with college students in varied American universities. The US can be a tourism vacation spot for a lot of Indians.
According to the airline, Air India, which was taken over by the Tata Group in January final yr, is on the revival path. In February 2023, Air India introduced that it’ll purchase 470 narrow-body and wide-body planes from Airbus and Boeing, with the overall deal worth estimated to be value USD 80 billion. This is likely one of the largest plane orders by an airline.
Air India will purchase 250 plane, together with 40 wide-body A350 planes, from European aviation main Airbus, and 220 planes from US plane maker Boeing beneath separate offers. The Airbus agency order includes 210 A320/321 Neo/XLR and 40 A350-900/1000. The Boeing agency order includes 190 737-Max, 20 787s and 10 777s.
Air India requires greater than 6,500 pilots
Air India would require greater than 6,500 pilots to operate 470 plane which are to be provided by Airbus and Boeing within the coming years, trade sources stated in February.
Recently, a senior Air India official stated the privatisation of Air India has “enabled Indian aviation” to faucet a really, very giant section of the market that had hitherto “remained untapped”.
“Privatisation has always been a difficult subject in India, more so when it comes to an asset like Air India, a national carrier, and a lot of feelings are attached to it,” he stated. “… everybody wants Air India to succeed and survive as a national carrier. Secondly, and most importantly it happened because it was Tata, and the kind of trust that the name evokes, made things easier,” the official stated.
Further, the official stated that if there’s belief within the model and even as a person, “you can go a long way, people will go out of their way to support you, do business with you, work with you”.
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(With PTI inputs)
