AI plans turnaround, to use new terminal as hub
Air India on Wednesday announced its plan to use the new integrated terminal T3 at IGI Airport as its hub.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: Air India on Wednesday announced its plan to use the new integrated terminal T3 at IGI Airport as its hub. Calling it a part of its turnaround project, airline CMD Arvind Jadhav said that operating from the new terminal, which would provide seamless travel for its passengers on all sectors, was likely to increase business by over 20% in the long run. He also announced three new direct international routes by October, and this would increase AI’s international coverage to 22 destinations from Delhi.
Jadhav said that the airline had been waiting for an integrated terminal that would enable it to connect India with the world. ‘‘ The goal for AI is to establish a dominant domestic carrier that would use narrow-body aircraft to seamlessly feed into the medium-haul and long-haul wide-body aircraft. Together, the combined network would provide the customer with an end-to-end offering that could be matched neither by the domestic low-cost carriers nor the hub-based international long-haul carriers,’’ he said.
One of the major benefits that AI is expecting to derive from an integrated terminal is the reduction in the minimum connecting time between flights to about 15 minutes as against the present 30 minutes to a few hours. ‘‘ For an airport to be used as a hub, the airline has to be given the advantage of being able to use seamless transfers from one sector to the other, both between domestic and international flights. Consequently , AI plans to not just improve its feeder routes between domestic and international routes but also focus on large markets such as London-Melbourne , London-Kathmandu , Bangkok-Paris etc,’’ said Jadhav.
AI will be introducing non-stop services between Delhi-Melbourne and Delhi-Chicago and resume services between Delhi-Seoul . It also has plans to increase the frequency of existing flights. With this move, the airline would be operating 143 flights per week on the international sector with 33,000 seats, a jump of nearly 50% of its capacity.
In the domestic sector, the airline plans to introduce a daily non-stop flight between Delhi and Goa while increasing the frequency of its existing flights to other domestic destinations thereby connecting 47 cities within the country. Domestic services will rise from the existing 62 per day to 71 per day with a capacity of 10,200, an increase of 25%.
Jadhav said the new terminal gave the airline an opportunity to learn. ‘‘ I appeal to all AI employees to show everyone that when a chance is given in the form of a world class airport, we will also give back world-class services,’’ he added.
Jadhav said that the airline had been waiting for an integrated terminal that would enable it to connect India with the world. ‘‘ The goal for AI is to establish a dominant domestic carrier that would use narrow-body aircraft to seamlessly feed into the medium-haul and long-haul wide-body aircraft. Together, the combined network would provide the customer with an end-to-end offering that could be matched neither by the domestic low-cost carriers nor the hub-based international long-haul carriers,’’ he said.
One of the major benefits that AI is expecting to derive from an integrated terminal is the reduction in the minimum connecting time between flights to about 15 minutes as against the present 30 minutes to a few hours. ‘‘ For an airport to be used as a hub, the airline has to be given the advantage of being able to use seamless transfers from one sector to the other, both between domestic and international flights. Consequently , AI plans to not just improve its feeder routes between domestic and international routes but also focus on large markets such as London-Melbourne , London-Kathmandu , Bangkok-Paris etc,’’ said Jadhav.
AI will be introducing non-stop services between Delhi-Melbourne and Delhi-Chicago and resume services between Delhi-Seoul . It also has plans to increase the frequency of existing flights. With this move, the airline would be operating 143 flights per week on the international sector with 33,000 seats, a jump of nearly 50% of its capacity.
In the domestic sector, the airline plans to introduce a daily non-stop flight between Delhi and Goa while increasing the frequency of its existing flights to other domestic destinations thereby connecting 47 cities within the country. Domestic services will rise from the existing 62 per day to 71 per day with a capacity of 10,200, an increase of 25%.
Jadhav said the new terminal gave the airline an opportunity to learn. ‘‘ I appeal to all AI employees to show everyone that when a chance is given in the form of a world class airport, we will also give back world-class services,’’ he added.
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