Fares to North America may fall as Air India expands wings

NEW DELHI: Travellers between India and North America will soon be spoilt for choice. Air India is planning more flights to the continent, by launching routes like Delhi-Birmingham-Toronto and a Delhi-Washington “capital connect".

“We are looking at some cities in US for adding to our network. This expansion will be done with our existing aircraft and the flights will be operated by sweating the assets more (meaning making more extensive use of planes and crew). We are in talks with US airports which have traffic demand to and from India. Whichever airports gives us the best deal, we will opt for that.That could be Washington or any other city there,“ said a senior AI official.

AI is the only Indian carrier that has direct flights to North America as Jet goes only to one city there, Toronto, via Amsterdam.

AI has nonstop flights from Delhi to New York, Newark, Chicago and San Francisco. As AI and other carriers add flights, frequencies and network in US, fares could fall with the increased supply giving flyers more choices.

So far, Gulf carriers have been garnering a large share of India-North America traffic.