Air-India Express to start flights from tier-II cities

Air-India Express, Air-India's low cost subsidiary, is planning to start flights for Gulf from tier II cities like Trichy, Amritsar and Managalore by June.

The airline will also add Chennai as origination point for new services. The airline will also launch non-stop direct services to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur once it gets the delivery of four Boeing aircraft.

After Air-India Express receives four B737 aircraft, the fleet strength will rise to seven aircraft. Currently, Air-India Express is operating into six Gulf destinations including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Salalah from 5 Indian cities including Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai and Delhi.

In its second phase of expansion, the airline will fly to new destinations including Bahrain, Kuwait, Bangkok and Qatar.

"We will be including these new international destinations from various Indian cities starting from winter schedule," a senior Air-India executive said. According to industry analysts, the proposed plans of Air-India Express will affect the load factor of Air-India since it is operating in the similar routes. However, Air-India sources said this will not impact them because Air-India Express is a no-frill and low fare carrier while the former is a full service airline."

Meanwhile, the parent carrier Air-India is also planning to enhance the capacity of its Amritsar-Birmingham-Toronto flights by increasing its frequency to six days a week from three days a week.

Air-India Charters Ltd, under whose umbrella the low cost airline Air-India Express is run, would receive 18 next generation B737-800 aircraft from the Boeing Company.