Dubai: In a bid to return to profitability, India's flag carrier Air India and sister low-cost carrier Air India Express will increase capacity by up to 15 per cent for Gulf countries, which it considers its cash cow.
In the coming months, Air India will operate new leased aircraft on the Gulf routes as it phases out about 20 ageing Airbus 320s.
"We will be leasing new aircraft. The proposal is for five," Arvind Jhadav, chairman and managing director of National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), Air India's holding company, said in Dubai yesterday.
The state-owned airline company is undergoing restructuring after the government ordered it to reduce its losses. It cut 47 routes in this region to deal with falling capacity.
Going ahead with its new strategy, however, it will increase capacity.
"We're doing a re-rationalising, seeing how the markets are and increase the frequency accordingly. [In the Gulf] we will be increasing capacity by about 15 per cent compared to before the cut. We have to see how the markets move," Jhadav told Gulf News.
The airline currently has 317 flights to the Gulf from India, and holds 40 per cent of the market on India-Gulf routes, the company said.
Following the May 20 crash of the Air India Express flight 182 from Dubai to Mangalore, the carrier will set up an engineering base in Dubai, for which it has applied for a licence, and also maintain an inventory.
"We will be signing contracts with MROs [maintenance, repair and overhaul firms] all over the Gulf so we can have inventories here," Jhadav said.
It will also set up cabin crew bases so it can operate a larger number of flights out of India into this region.
"Potentially … we could be in a position to add another 200-250 flights. Whether it should be a low-cost carrier or full service carrier… these internal discussions will happen," he said.
Meanwhile, as New Delhi's airport begins full-fledged operations next month after upgrading of infrastructure, Air India will move its base for seamless, point-to-point operations.
