AI Express to lease 8 planes, to up capacity 4% by winter

Air India's budget arm Air India Express plans to increase capacity and induct more aircraft to take on the competition.

Besides deploying 3-4 per cent more capacity from the winter schedule and adding another eight planes to the fleet, the airline will also focus on markets other than the already established southern region, a top official told PTI here.

Budget carriers such as Sharjah-based Air Arabia, Dubai's FlyDubai and Malaysia's AirAsia operate on most of the routes catered to by Air India Express. It also competes with domestic budget airlines IndiGo and SpiceJet.

The Kochi-based airline operates 165 weekly flights connecting 12 international routes and on 11 domestic destinations with a fleet of 17 aircraft. Of these, 87 flights are from Kerala alone.

"Our plan is to add 3-4% capacity from the winter schedule. In addition, we will also be increasing aircraft utilisation from the current 188 hrs a day (by the full fleet) by another 8-10 hrs," the official said.

A couple of years ago, the airline operated around 214 flights a week with 25 Boeing 737s including seven leased ones. However, after one of its owned planes crashed in Mangalore in 2010 and it returned all the seven leased aircraft, Air India Express significantly cut down operations.