Disinvestment-bound Air India’s regional arm, Alliance Air, plans to induct five ATR planes in its fleet in as many months and will soon roll out flights to three new destinations as part of the government’s UDAN scheme. As of now, the Delhi-based airline flies to 46 destinations with a fleet of 15 ATR 72-600s. “We are in the process of inducting new ATR 72-600 aircraft by March next year, which will take our fleet size to 20 planes at the end of the fiscal,” said C S Subbiah, CEO, Alliance Air. Subbiah said that the airline is competing with high density rail traffic and that it has enhanced frequency on many routes with daily flights from weekly flights in the last two years.
Alliance Air, at present, operates 89 departures per day connecting 62 city-pairs. “Along with the fleet, we are expanding our route network as well. We will shortly be launching a flight to Agra from Delhi, which will be our 47th destination, as part of the government’s regional connectivity scheme UDAN,” he said. Alliance Air and four other operators – SpiceJet, Air Deccan, Air Odisha and TruJet – were mandated to launch flights 70 airports connecting 128 routes in the first round of bidding for UDAN.
