Air India adds long-haul international flights

Air India is moving ahead with the addition of long-haul international flights, with CEO Campbell Wilson in the cockpit.

The state-owned carrier had to ground several widebody aircraft in early 2020 due to the curtailment of international operations after the Covid-19 pandemic and other reasons.

Since its acquisition by the salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group in January this year, the national flag carrier has been working closely with the US aircraft manufacturer Boeing to restore aircraft that were previously mothballed.

In a first step, Air India has increased flights on the Delhi and Vancouver sectors from thrice weekly to daily from August 31. This has been made possible by the return of five widebody aircraft to the airline's fleet in three-class configuration of first, business and economy.

This increase in our frequency between Vancouver and Delhi is very welcome for many reasons. Wilson said it is a sign of recovery from the pandemic and caters to strong customer demand and is the first step in restoring Air India's fleet and international network. The increase in number of flights will cater to the growing traffic between India and Canada. These flights will be operated by Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft.

An airline official told Business Today that this achievement is an important transformational milestone, with aircraft returning to the Air India fleet in a fit to fly condition.

Air India will be able to improve its schedule resilience as a result of the operationalisation of these aircraft, allowing it to increase both flights and destinations on international routes in the coming months.

The widebody fleet of the airline is currently 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. This is a significant improvement from the 28 aircraft that the airline was operating until recently. The remaining aircraft will be returning to service by early 2023.

These are just the beginning of the day and the once iconic airline has a long flight path ahead of it before it is back in the reckoning.

There are a lot of challenges before Air India. A network carrier, for instance, is about vistaar expanse and a low-cost carrier is about vipina density Given the size and type of aircraft currently in its fleet, it manages to cover only about 50 airports. An aviation analyst asked for anonymity as he said that the rest can't take an Airbus or Boeing flight.

Air India will need Alliance Air that operates with a fleet of ATRs and Dorniers. It will need to put in place robust engineering support. Its turnaround will be a five-year project with so many pieces involved. The person said that Air India can be a formidable force in aviation if all goes well by the year 2025.

International traffic from India has been growing steadily since the government lifted the embargo on international flights on March 27. Passenger volumes could reach 96 97 per cent of pre-Covid levels at 329 -- 332 million in the current fiscal, with June traffic already at 79 per cent of the levels, ratings agency ICRA estimates.