Air India restructures operations to US, Europe

Public sector Air India on Thursday said it has taken a major initiative towards strengthening its global network, restructuring its operations to the US and Europe and by making Frankfurt its operational hub.

"To begin with, Chicago and New York would offer more convenient connections to originating traffic from a larger geographical area in India, with the Chicago flight now set to operate from Delhi," Air India executive director (southern region) EA Varghese told reporters here.

He said the passengers who wish to travel from New Delhi to New York would be transferred to the Mumbai-New York flight at Frankfurt. Likewise fliers from Mumbai who wish to go to Chicago would be tranferred to the Delhi-Chicago flight at Frankfurt
and the connections at Frankfurt would be immediate, he added.

Varghese said all these flights would be operated with state of the art 342 seater B777-300ER aircraft, configured in three classes. Further he added that flight schedules have been so drawn that passengers could depart from India at about 1 am from Mumbai/Delhi, arrive in Frankfurt at about 6 pm and depart at around 8 pm for arrival at Chicago/New York at 10.30 am, thus providing fastest connectivity between India and the US.

Varghese informed that Air India would soon launch a non-stop Delhi-San Franscisco flight later this year after inducting three new Boeing 777LR aircraft between June-August 2009.

"This will be the longest flight to be operated to/from India. Air India will also earn the distinction of being the largest operator of non-stop services between India and US --
three a day in each direction," he claimed.

On the company's proposal to induct new flights he said, the airline presently has over 150 aircraft, including 45 inducted in the past 18 months. After the induction of 30 new aircraft between now and March 2010, a total of 75 of the 111 aircraft ordered with
Boeing and Airbus in 2005 would have joined the fleet, drastically bringing down the average age of the fleet to about 18 months.

Further he said that Air India was working towards joining Star Alliance, the consortium of 21 carriers from across the globe.

"Once the airline becomes a member, its passengers will directly benefit from an integrated network, common terminals, access to airport lounges worldwide and code sharing, leading to a wider choice of flights," he added.