NEW DELHI: With an aim to increase market share, Air India is adding more than 400 weekly flights to its domestic and international route network until March 2024, as part of the Winter Schedule ’23.
The winter session for the aviation industry starts on the last Sunday of October and concludes on the last Saturday of March.
In the domestic market, the Tata Group airline is adding more than 200 weekly flights on several routes touching major Indian cities such as Mumbai and Delhi. On its international route network, the carrier would operate over 200 weekly flights, of which over 80 weekly flights have already been added.
This expansion of routes will be aided by deliveries of over 30 widebody and narrowbody aircraft to its fleet, including six A350s, four B777s and 20 A320neos, between now and March 2024. These inductions are a part of Air India’s record purchase of 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing in a deal valued at $70 billion (based on list prices).
Currently, Air India (excluding Air India Express) operates about 2900 flights a week with a fleet of 120 aircraft. About 32% of 2900 flights operate on international routes. The airline had a market share of 9.2% in September 2023, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data. The market share of Air India group airlines –Vistara and AirAsia India- stood at 10% and 6.7% respectively.
Campbell Wilson, chief executive officer and managing director of Air India, in a mail to employees said, “We are also hoping to launch four new international stations in the next few months, of which we will share more details in due course, as well as more interline partnerships. On the latter, our latest partner is Alaska Airlines, which will help expand our connectivity to multiple destinations in the US, Mexico, and Canada.” Air India also has plans to add four new international destinations to its network, which it will announce soon.
At the onset of the Winter Schedule ’23, the airline claims that it has ramped up frequency by 25x weekly flights (each way) on eight international routes across points in Southeast Asia, United States, and Europe. This includes the weekly frequencies on Mumbai-Singapore increasing from 7x to 13x, Delhi-Bangkok from 7x to 14x, Delhi-Dhaka from 7x to 12x, Delhi-Newark (New Jersey) from 3x to 4x, Delhi-San Francisco from 10x to 11x, Delhi-Washington D.C. from 3x to 4x, Delhi-Copenhagen from 3x to 4x, Delhi-Milan from 4x to 5x, Mumbai-Doha from 7x to 9x.Air India has also opened flights on four new routes, including Bengaluru-Singapore, Kochi-Doha, Kolkata-Bangkok, and Mumbai-Melbourne.
