AI presses for many more global flights from Delhi

Buoyed by the increasing number of passengers it is getting here on its international flights, Air India has asked the government to be allowed to fly directly to three new destinations daily from Delhi -- Beijing, Shanghai and Kabul. 

It is also seeking permission to operate more non-stop flights seven days a week from Delhi to destinations which include New York, Toronto and Chicago. Currently, AI has no direct flight from these destinations, though it has a daily flight from Amritsar via Delhi to Toronto and daily Delhi to Newark one. 

The state-owned carrier has also asked for permission to fly daily to Tokyo and Paris, again from Delhi. Currently it flies twice a week on these routes. If all this comes through, 45 new international flights would be added from Delhi, their new hub for international travel. 

“With T3 (the new airport terminal) becoming the hub, Air India is seeing an increase in passengers coming to Delhi for onward flights to Europe and the US. They have seen an increase in arrival of 150 passengers daily in the flight coming from Kathmandu and many among them take the flight to various other international destinations in the network,” said a senior ministry official, who did not want to be identified. 

Recently, the airline became the first to be allowed to operate direct flights in the Delhi-Melbourne sector. All other airlines between India and the Australia sector operate flights with a stopover in Singapore. 

Even as Kingfisher Airlines does not plan any ultra long-haul flights immediately after joining the One World Alliance, Jet Airways has sought permission to fly directly to the United States from October. 

AI used to incur Rs 250 crore losses in operating flights to long-haul routes in the US and Canada. The airline saw some revenue improvement after it started operating the larger Boeing 777-300 ER (extreme range), which provides space for 100 more passengers per flight. 

AI has debt of Rs 40,000 crore and has got equity infusions of Rs 800 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 1,200 crore in 2010-11 from the government. The latter has also said it would infuse Rs 1,200 crore in the next financial year, that will take the equity base of the airline to Rs 3,345 crore. 

Of the Rs 40,000 crore, working capital debt is Rs 21,000 crore and the rest are loans taken to fund aircraft acquisition. Working capital debt are all high-cost, with an interest rate of 12 per cent. The carrier had ordered 111 aircraft worth Rs 46,000 crore and taken delivery of 80 till now. 

AI also has an annual interest payment of around Rs 1,800 crore and has accumulated losses of Rs 15,000 crore. It lost Rs 2,226 crore in 2007-08, Rs 7,189 crore in 2008-09, and Rs 5,551 crore in 2009-10.