Summary
- Air India is reportedly planning to expand its reach within the US by adding recent destinations equivalent to Boston and Los Angeles.
- The carrier’s previous suboptimal US operations were primarily because of a shortage of widebody planes.
- Air India’s fleet under the Tata Group is undergoing a large overhaul, with the addition of recent aircraft giving the airline a major capability boost.
Air India is reportedly planning so as to add more US destinations to its network. For a very long time, Air India missed capitalizing on the huge demand for non-stop India-US flights because of a scarcity of adequate widebody planes. But ever because the Tata Group took over, it has regularly added more flights to the West.
More US destinations are being considered
Air India is pondering of expanding its reach within the US, with the Press Trust of India reporting that it’s considering Boston and Los Angeles, amongst other recent destinations within the country. The report quotes an individual conversant in the matter as saying,
Photo: Soos Jozsef/Shutterstock
Currently, Air India flies to 5 US destinations – Recent York (JFK), Newark (EWR), Chicago (ORD), San Francisco (SFO), and Washington, DC (IAD). United Airlines and American Airlines even have non-stop flights to India from EWR and JFK, respectively.
Plenty to think about before starting recent flights
For years now, Air India has not been in a position to fully make the most of the big demand for flights between India and the US. Many consider that the carrier’s suboptimal US operations were because of inadequate management as a government-run airline, where profitability was never an urgent priority. Fleet and network optimization suffered consequently, which resulted in other carriers filling the gap.
Air India simply didn’t have enough energetic widebody planes to begin recent US routes, but all that’s changing now. Its fleet is undergoing a large overhaul, with the Tata Group fixing its grounded fleet and progressively adding more widebodies. Already, the Tatas have brought back its Bengaluru-San Francisco flight and commenced a brand new service between Mumbai and San Francisco within the last yr.
Photo: christopheronglv | Shutterstock
The airline will take deliveries of six recent Airbus A350-900 aircraft in the approaching months, which shall be joined by five leased B777-200LR planes and nine B777-300ER aircraft by the top of the following financial yr. Several other A350s, Boeing 787s, and 777Xs will join Air India’s fleet over the approaching years, giving it a large capability boost.
In fact, it’s not only a matter of getting more aircraft to begin recent routes. Air India will need to think about its pilot and cabin crew strength in addition to ground crew at airports to support these recent flights.
High demand
Airlines can mostly rely upon a perennial demand for passengers wanting to fly between India and the US, as many Indians travel to the US for employment opportunities, as students, or just as tourists.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy Flying
United Airlines recently announced its decision to extend its Delhi-Newark flight to double day by day from October, and in line with Easy Flying’s evaluation, airlines are planning a record variety of non-stop US-India flights this winter. Clearly, Air India would wish to take a bigger share of that pie.
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