6 more Dreamliners to join AI fleet
Pankaj Srivastava, Director - Commercial, Air India, says that more airlines plying international would mean more competition, and this would in turn boost the Indian aviation market.
Buoyed by the new National Civil Aviation Policy, which emphasises on regional connectivity, Air India is upbeat about its 'Connect India' programme.
Pankaj Srivastava, reveals, “With the regional connectivity scheme, the smaller towns will get a chance to get connected and come in the mainstream. As far as Air India is concerned we are quite upbeat on regional connectivity and have already started connecting some of the destina- tions, which have never been connected. And as our aircraft fleet position becomes better, we would increase regional connectivity to a great extent and help in government’s vision to connect the whole of India.”
He revealed that Air India is dedicated towards fleet augmentation. “We have been doing it in the past few years. We already have 21 Dreamliners in our fleet, and another six will be joining our fleet in the next 8-9 months.
"Besides that, we have three 777-300s on order, which will be delivered in 2018. We have also ordered 29 Airbus 320s which will start coming in from early next year. For regional connectivity, we have started getting ATR 72s. Expansion is the only way to remain afloat in this market.”
In fact, Air India is already plying the Dreamliners on the domestic routes. “We are already having the Dreamliners do twice a day to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. As and when we get more Dreamliners, we are sure that the deployment on the domestic routes is going to increase.” However, the market might just change with the announcement of 100 per cent foreign direct investment in aviation. Srivastava disagrees, “We need funds to be infused in the civil aviation sector and with 100 per cent FDI, technology upgrade will take place and bigger players will come in the market.”
But this would lead to more competition. He claims, “Competition is always healthy. More the players, the better it is for the passengers because that gives them choice and flexibility. On the other hand, it helps the airlines to improve their services.”