Air India recently launched the thrice-weekly New Delhi-Madrid direct flight, adding to the airline’s international routes. The national carrier will soon expand its international portfolio with new upcoming destinations. Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Ashwani Lohani, CMD, Air India, informed that the airline plans to launch six new international routes next year. He stated, “We are looking at Washington DC, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Copenhagen, Toronto and Stockholm for the upcoming destinations. We are also looking to add extra flights to Australia and further connect Frankfurt to Mumbai in the near future.” Earlier this year, Air India had launched Ahmedabad to New York flight, apart from the Delhi to Vienna services.
On the domestic front, he said that Air India will be adding 24 new planes in 2017, out of which, 14 will be Airbus aircraft and 10 ATRs. He also mentioned that these planes will fly to more routes in North East India. Talking about the competition in domestic market, he opined, “There is definitely competition from the domestic airlines, but our prices are also equally competitive.”
Adding to his comment, Lohani stated, “When there is high competition in the transport sector, the cost is pushed down and profit margins are low. While people are still following the mindset of being transported at a lower cost, the prices have not changed in the past five years. This makes the sector highly complicated as one single item of consumption, the fuel price, often changes the entire scenario for an airline.”
Talking about the aviation sector, he opined, “Aviation is the mother of all sectors and is highly regulated as compared to other industries in India considering the safety standards involved in each process.”