Unaffected by divestment

While news is ripe that Air India will soon be divested, the announcement has not affected the airline’s performance, claims Ashwani Lohani, Chairman & MD, Air India.

Nisha Verma

Air India has begun operating on a total of nine international routes in FY 2019-20, informs Ashwani Lohani. “We have started Delhi-Dubai, Mumbai-Dubai, Indore-Dubai, Kolkata-Dubai, Amritsar- Toronto, Amritsar-Delhi-Toronto, Chennai-Jaffna (Alliance Air), and Amritsar-Stansted. On November 27, 2019, we added Mumbai-Nairobi to our network as well,” he shares. The national carrier has started many new domestic flights as well, which include Mumbai-Dehradun- Banaras, Amritsar-Patna, as well as Mumbai-Patna.

Under ‘Ghoomo India’, if one is travelling to a tourist place with a group or family of at least three, we will give a 25% discount

While these are all Air India flights, a number of domestic operations, especially under the UDAN scheme of Ministry of Civil Aviation, have also been started. Lohani adds, “The high- light is that we have completed all this expansion without any addition of new aircraft and by using the existing fleet and staff to its maximum capacity. We were able to do this despite the financial crunch and other issues that the airline is facing. We have around 125 aircraft for Air India while only 169 aircraft in the entire Air India network (which includes Alliance Air and Air India Express). We have increased the flying hours of all these aircraft by about two to three hours to be able to man- age the new operations.”

New routes, not aircraft

When asked about the advantage Air India has got owing to Jet Airways closing down, Lohani says, “When any player is out of the market, the market share increases and is fulfilled by others. Not only Air India, other airlines have also fulfilled these slots. By improving our service quality, we have been able to increase our occupancy by around four per cent.” Despite other private airlines announcing new aircraft orders, codeshares and routes, Lohani insists that none can match the network and service of Air India in the Indian market. “Air India is a full-service carrier, and the only one in India to offer long- haul and ultra-long-haul non- stop connections to Europe, America and even Australia. This is our USP,” he says.

Commenting on the current scenario of Air India, Lohani says that while the morale is down because of the disinvestment process, the airline is able to perform well. “Owing to the Pakistan air space problem, we lost around `400 crore. Despite all these problems, we have managed to perform well,” he shares. Talking about delays and other complaints that come for Air India, Lohani says, “We work on a hub-and-spoke model and carry passengers from small cities in India to international destinations and vice versa. A half-hour to one-hour delay in any long-haul flight can lead to delay in the connecting flight as well. We don’t just fly point-to-point like other airlines, but offer further connections into India and internationally.” He adds that while they are not ordering any more aircraft to add more connections, they have a mandate to run the airline and to do that, they are using all their resources in an optimum way.

Air India plays an important role in promoting tourism by connecting more than 72 destinations in India and 42 international destinations, claims Lohani. “This means that we are connecting India to the world. We have launched ‘Ghoomo India’ scheme, which is based on the Prime Minister’s call from the Red Fort on Independence Day for all Indians to visit new places in India. Hence, we are trying to fulfil this dream through this scheme, under which if one is travelling to a tourist place with a group or family of at least three, we will give a 25 per cent discount. Apart from that, there is ‘Namaste India’ scheme to facilitate passengers who are travelling from international destinations to India,” he informs.