Air India mulls making Dublin airport its operational base

Air India is considering a proposal to make Dublin airport its operational base and a team is likely to visit Ireland soon to study the possibility.

“Air India was initially looking at about seven airports to establish its international hub. Later, they came down to two and Dublin is one of them,” said Irish Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar.

A team from Air India would be visiting Ireland in the next six to eight weeks, he said. Air India had earlier initiated hub operations at Frankfurt but withdrew last year after facing a severe financial crunch. The carrier’s hub is in Delhi now and the carrier had earlier announced not to make any other international hub.

“We are also looking at establishing direct air links between India, probably Delhi, and Dublin. Discussions are going on with the Government of India,” Varadkar, who met Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi, said.

He added talks were progressing reasonably well on a bilateral Air Services Agreement (ASA), which could be finalised and signed very soon. Fifth freedom rights, which allow an airline to pick up and fly passengers from one foreign destination to another, were also on the agenda. Varadkar said the thrust of his discussions with his Indian counterpart was to enhance cooperation in civil aviation to help both Indians travelling to North America and Irish going to Australia and Southeast Asia to stop over at Dublin or Delhi.

“A huge number of Irish travel to Australia and other parts of Asia through the Gulf. Now they will be able to go through Delhi,” he said.