With the India-US sector becoming its highest revenue grosser, national carrier Air India has planned to link Washington and Texas besides connecting the tech hubs of San Francisco and Bangalore.
The state-run airline, which has 38 flights a week to the US cities including the latest New Delhi-New York non-stop flight, will link the two Silicon Valleys before this August, when Kingfisher Airlines plans to connect the two cities.
AI, which offers 12,536 seats a week to the US including half of them to New York, will fly to either Dallas or Houston in Texas as more and more brand new aircraft join its fleet. The carrier has ordered 68 Boeing aircraft including 18 for its subsidiary Air India Express. AI currently flies to NY, Newark, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Speaking to a group of journalists who flew on the maiden New Delhi-NY flight on a state-of-the-art Boeing 777-200LR (long range), AI executive director Jitendra Bhargava said, “As India-US sector is AI’s largest revenue earner with enormous growth potential, it will continue to be AI’s major thrust area for growth in the coming years. Induction of long haul aircraft will enable the airline to connect to the proposed destinations in the US. We have ordered 15 B777-300ERs (extended range) which will have a halt at a European point.”
The carrier expects to earn over Rs 3,300 crore revenue in the current financial year from India-US sector compared to Rs 2,615.76 crore last fiscal. AI has ordered eight B777-200LR, 15 B777-300ER and 27 B787 Dreamliners, while its low cost subsidiary Air India Express will receive 18 B737-800.
With growth prospects bright, AI plans to order a new batch of aircraft but this may take some time.
Bhargava says AI will become the premier airline from India to US with the facilities it will offer.
“AI will continue to maintain its leadership by enhancing capacity deployment and introducing new flights. We have remarkable confidence in our on-time performance. Passengers can trust our product for punctuality and comfort level. We want to put across a message to the travelling public: the new aircraft is the face of new AI,” he added.
