Amritsar-Toronto on AirIndia

Air India will start direct operations between Delhi and Madrid from December 2016 and is also planning to connect Amritsar-Toronto and Delhi-Washington DC next year. Pankaj Srivastava, Director-Commercial and Board Member, Air India, elaborates on the tu

QHow has Air India performed in 2016? After few years of dull period for Air India, we are yet again emerging as a vibrant carrier. We have posted profits worth ` 105 crore for the financial year 2015-16. From October 15, the flight which connected Delhi and San Francisco via the Atlantic route will begin operations on the Pacific route and return on the Atlantic route, making it the only flight that will go around the world. We have grown considerably in the European market. Today we connect eight destinations directly with Delhi. We have four flights into Heathrow everyday and besides that we operate a daily service to Birmingham, Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, Milan, Vienna, among others.

QWhat new can we expect from Air India? From December 1, we would be connecting Delhi with Madrid. Most of the passengers travelling to Spain were dependent on one-stop carriers and can now avail non-stop service on this connection reducing the lapse time considerably for the passengers. We are expanding our networks in 2017, connecting Delhi and Washington DC on a non-stop flight. We are also planning to connect India with Toronto on a flight from Amritsar to Toronto via Birmingham. Keeping in mind the white spots in Europe where there is no connectivity, we will also try to connect the Scandinavian countries with India. With the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) the government has given impetus to regional connectivity and we at Air India have jumped on to encash this segment. We have ordered on lease turbo props which will connect the Tier III with Tier IV cities very soon.

QWhat has led to the turnaround of the airline in the last one year?

Team Air India is the reason behind the turnaround that we have witnessed. All of us have put in our efforts and our deeds have been much focused. The connections that we have been providing on the international network are actually helping us to turn the table around.

QWhat are the challenges of the aviation industry in India? There is a gross imbalance of trade which means gross imbalance between the number of seats we import into Indian and the number of seats which we export. This imbalance is largely due to the inability of major carriers including Air India to mount services to various destinations in the world. However new carriers have emerged and the kind of aircraft orders we have to join the fleet in the market, is going to change the trend and reduce the imbalance considerably. The rapidly changing and dynamic environment in India is also a challenge for the airline. The technology movement is very fast and other stakeholders need to keep pace with.

QWhat according to you will be the impact of GST on the aviation industry?

The effect of GST on airfare is a challenge. While ATF has been kept out of the GST purview, the airline services will be subjected to GST which is nearly 7-8 per cent higher than service tax that the airline industry is already paying. I expect an upward movement of fares out of India.

QWhat trends do you see in the Indian aviation sector? India has a population of 1.34 billion people out of which only one per cent avails air services. We are expected to grow at an approximate rate of eight per cent annually which also makes us one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world. If this one per cent availing air services increases to five per cent then we will need nearly 2,500 more aircrafts to cater to that demand.

The middle class income group is estimated to be $350 million out of the total population with an average age of 35 years. The disposable income is high in this segment and thus we have seen a tremendous growth of outbound travel from India.

The new connection of Amritsar-Toronto via Birmingham will serve the huge population of Indians living in Toronto city, who’d like to use a direct connection. I agree that there are other airlines plying to Toronto as well, but I believe that the market is very big and it will February 15, 2017, and we will be offering a good package closer to the date. Ashwani Lohani Chairman & Managing Director, Air India From December 1, we would be connecting Delhi with Madrid. Most of the passengers engers travelling to Spain were dependent on one-stop carriers and can now avail l non-stop service reducing the lapse e time considerably for the passengers. Pankaj Srivastava a Director-Commercial & Board Member, Air India