‘We Took A Long-Term Approach In Our Strategic Planning For 2005-06’

V Thulasidas, CMD, Air-India in an exclusive with Charmaine Fernz chalks out the plans that lie ahead...

The aviation industry has been on an all time high. We took on an optimistic long-term approach, taking into consideration the future growth of both the software and hardware aspects of our airline. This included network and fleet expansion and was primarily slated to improve the basic quality of Air-India. Profitability was another factor taken into consideration; wherein one could control costs and improve the yield and productivity of the airline. All these ideas where conceptualised in conjunction with the heads of various departments to bring about combined efforts for the company. The aircraft purchase programme was the first to take off in two distinct parts. The first being acquisition of 68 aircrafts, which was the initial proposal. That has been brought down to 18 Boeing aircrafts while the second phase that was 50 aircraft remains the same. The only difference is that now these 50 aircraft would be in two types - long range ie A340-500 which caters to the 350 or more capacity and the short/medium range ie B777-200 LR that caters to the 250 or more capacity. Aircraft manufacturer options are also being considered at the moment both with Airbus as well as Boeing. Air-India will receive its first set of 18 aircraft by the end of March and two thirds of the 50 aircraft will be under consideration for confirmation. Considering the rapid growth in Indian aviation, even the 68 aircrafts we are looking at acquiring, would be less in the coming two to three years. We would also consider the Boeing 7E7 - Dreamliner or the Airbus A380 as our aircraft options.

Route Expansion

Getting on to new routes and destination, we are looking at the US in a big way. Apart from the existent destinations, we would like to fly to San Francisco, Washington and another place in Texas-Houston or even Dallas; our Los Angeles flights which are five at the moment would be increased to seven by the end of March and the Chicago flight from six to a daily schedule. Our plans also include resuming the Toronto link. Increase of the London terminator connections are being considered primarily from Delhi. We would consider making Paris and Washington strong bases for the airline, wherein passengers coming in from Bangalore or Hyderabad to either of these hubs can take a connecting flight ahead to our European destinations. This would certainly enhance our customer satisfaction. The other unplanned destinations are Rome; from Mauritius onwards to Johannesburg or Lagos in South Africa; increased flights to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Korea/Taipei and Osaka in Japan.

The Air-India Express

With the launch of Air-India Express round the corner, the strategies include that the airline would fly out of from Trivandrum, Kochi, Calicut, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati to all points that Air-India operates to in the Gulf except Saudi Arabia and South-East Asia ie Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, which would be in a phased manner. There would definitely be different fare structures which are lower than the current available fares. It would be an all-economy airline wherein the service will be scaled down but the aircraft would be all new. The booking structure would include the web and travel agents.