Ai, Sia Sign Accord On Us Sector

Air India (AI) has entered into an agreement with Singapore International Airlines (SIA) to service routes on the West coast of United States like Los Angeles. The carrier is also planning to increase its flights to Chicago.

Ministry sources said that the new alliance was ratified about one week ago. Sources said that the agreement was a code sharing agreement, under which SIA would give a large number of seats to the national carrier on the Los Angeles-Singapore-India sector.

AI officials confirmed this and said that the agreement will be put into place soon. The new flights will be introduced in the winter time table of the airline, starting the last Sunday of October.

This alliance will help AI utilise more of its bilateral rights with the US, and AI can fly to New York, Chicago and to LA.

Further, the national carrier is planning to add two more flights to Chicago later this year. Earlier in June, the carrier increased its flights to Chicago to five.

AI currently flies on 16-17 routes, and is heavily dependent on its flights to Gulf, USA and Japan for its revenue generation. In fiscal 1997, in fact, only the Gulf routes were profitable. Heavy losses have been incurred on several India-Europe and India-Canada sectors.

According to the Disinvestment Commission's report on AI, many Indian entitlements are unutilised or underutilised. Of the routes currently operated to USA, seats unutilised are 2,760, against 7,140 utilised seats. For Europe, the unutilised number is 19,468 against utilised seats of 28,590. For the Gulf, the seats utilised are 27,950 against the unutilised seats of 2,753.

AI's share of traffic to and from India, though still the highest, has fallen from 50 per cent in the mid-60s to around 22 per cent at present. AI carries around 10 million passengers every year and the growth in the next five years is expected to be around 6 per cent per year.

Air India (AI) has entered into an agreement with Singapore International Airlines (SIA) to service routes on the West coast of United States like Los Angeles. The carrier is also planning to increase its flights to Chicago.

Ministry sources said that the new alliance was ratified about one week ago. Sources said that the agreement was a code sharing agreement, under which SIA would give a large number of seats to the national carrier on the Los Angeles-Singapore-India sector. AI officials confirmed this and said that the agreement will be put into place soon. The new flights will be introduced in the winter time table of the airline, starting the last Sunday of October.

This alliance will help AI utilise more of its bilateral rights with the US, and AI can fly to New York, Chicago and to LA.

Further, the national carrier is planning to add two more flights to Chicago later this year. Earlier in June, the carrier increased its flights to Chicago to five. AI currently flies on 16-17 routes, and is heavily dependent on its flights to Gulf, USA and Japan for its revenue generation. In fiscal 1997, in fact, only the Gulf routes were profitable. Heavy losses have been incurred on several India-Europe and India-Canada sectors.

According to the Disinvestment Commission's report on AI, many Indian entitlements are unutilised or underutilised. Of the routes currently operated to USA, seats unutilised are 2,760, against 7,140 utilised seats.

For Europe, the unutilised number is 19,468 against utilised seats of 28,590.

For the Gulf, the seats utilised are 27,950 against the unutilised seats of 2,753. AI's share of traffic to and from India, though still the highest, has fallen from 50 per cent in the mid-60s to around 22 per cent at present.

AI carries around 10 million passengers every year and the growth in the next five years is expected to be around 6 per cent per year.