Air India today started flight services to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pardesh from here as part of its plan to provide air connectivity to remote and unserved parts of the country.
The inaugural flight, AI 9809, which made AI the only carrier flying on Delhi-Gorakhpur sector, took off from the Indira Gandhi International Airport here with 42 passengers on board, an AI statement said.
Air India Chairman and Manging Director Ashwani Lohani cut the ribbon to launch the new route, which will be served by an ATR 62-600 aircraft, it said.
The flight will be operated six days a week -- Monday to Saturday.
With the new service, flyers from Gorakhpur will get connections to several domestic and international destinations through hub Delhi, the airline said.
Similarly, passengers arriving into Delhi from the Gulf and other international and domestic destinations will also be able to connect to Gorakhpur from Delhi by this flight, it said.
To questions on Air India's network expansion plans, the
officials said today the airline launched the Ahmedabad-London -Newark flight, months after the Delhi-Vienna and Delhi-San Francisco services. The airline is planning to double the San Francisco service from 3 to 6 days a week from November one.
The plans are to launch a flight to Madrid in January and to Washington or Toronto by April-May next year. The other routes on the anvil are Copenhagen and some destinations in Africa, they said.
On the domestic front, the plans are to connect several Tier-II and Tier-III cities, they said, pointing out that "there is a lot of space and we want to take the first mover advantage" to these destinations.
Regarding its fleet expansion programme which would be a combination of lease or sale and lease-back, they said while three new ATR turboprop planes have already been inducted to serve the domestic route expansion, "orders for ten more are expected to be placed in the next week to 10 days."
Besides, Air India has also placed orders for 30 Airbus A-320s, six Boeing 787 Dreamliners and three Boeing-777s.
Over the next four years, "We will either buy or lease a total of 115 aircraft (of different types) and retire 15 old ones. So we will add 100 planes in this period," they said.
However on the flip side, the officials also expressed concern over "falling yields" saying this has been a factor affecting all Indian carriers which have seen their yields falling by as high as ten per cent.
They also spoke of several marketing tactics adopted in the recent past like matching AC-II tier train to last-minute fares, launching day-return flights and improved in-flight services to enhance its market share.
Besides expanding its route network and fleet, Air India has been working on ways to revive its fortunes by reducing expenses in a variety of ways.
"I have been repeatedly emphasising on economy, curbing of wasteful expenditure and maintaining immaculate conduct and behaviour," Lohani has said in a series of recent strong directives barring hiring of luxury cabs or high-end hotel rooms abroad or even welcoming himself with bouquets or carrying his briefcases.
"All these steps have had a major impact not only on our finances but also on the culture and the value system of the airline," the CMD said.
