MUMBAI: Air India has planned a Rs 20-crore advertising blitzkrieg over the next six months to showcase its non-stop flights from India to destinations in the United States.
Launched July-end, the campaign presently revolves around the Mumbai-New York non-stop flight, for which the company has set up billboards at Times Square in New York and in Mumbai besides advertising in leading US newspapers and travel magazines.
Air India's billboard at Times Square is the first such initiative by a public sector enterprise from India.
"We have planned around Rs 20-crore ad blitz spanning over the next six months," a senior Air India official said.
"We are now planning to put up a billboard at the John F Kennedy airport...We have not fixed a timeframe for this but most probably, this should be up by month-end," he said.
Air India is presently focusing on the Mumbai-New York non-stop flight, which was launched on July 31, "to get maximum mileage" for it, the official said.
The cost for putting up this billboard in Times Square is around $1,00,000.
Air India has also started print advertisements for the newly-launched flight and had placed a full page advertisement in the New York Times on the day of the launch.
"Besides, we have also placed quarter page ads in the Wall Street Journal besides ads in travel magazines in both the US and India," the official said.
Air India plans to launch its Delhi-New York non-stop flight in January 2008 and a Delhi-San Francisco flight is also a possibility, he said.
Air India is mulling starting more non-stop flights to the US to destinations such as Chicago, Washington and Houston and perhaps even to destinations in Canada like Vancouver and Toronto, the official said.
Other Indian cities, which Air India is looking to connect to the US through non-stop flights are Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Amritsar. However, these would have to wait until Air India secures more long-haul aircraft, he added.
