Air India will add domestic flights, plans more Boeing 787 flights to Gulf

Air India is cutting down on flights to loss-making foreign routes and ramping up its domestic network in its summer schedule. Air India deploys its Airbus A320 fleet both on domestic and Gulf routes. The airline operates about 15 flights daily to Gulf sectors using the A320 planes. Over the next few months, Air India will be replacing all its A320-operated Gulf routes with Boeing 787 planes. “Currently, the Airbus A320 fleet utilisation is about 10-11 hours. The A320 aircraft will now be flown only on domestic routes and few South Asian routes. This will enable us to add more flights and routes within India. We plan to increase our domestic capacity in the summer schedule,” the spokesperson added.

The carrier has about 60 Airbus A320 type planes but is utilising only 52-53 of these as the others are under maintenance and overhaul checks. It is also taking five A320 planes on lease. Air India had a domestic market share of 18.7 per cent in January and aims to increase the share by adding more flights.

The airline is also reducing flights on foreign routes like Delhi-Moscow and Delhi-Rome-Milan. The Australia route is reporting loads of 80-85 per cent.

The Boeing 787s freed up as a result of reduction in flights will be flown on Gulf routes. Air India has 19 Boeing 787s now and will be inducting two more by June-end.

Air India is aiming to increase revenue by 10 per cent with additional domestic flights and increasing occupancy in its premium cabins.