New Delhi: Air India may have at long last struck gold with its Delhi-San Francisco (SFO) nonstop connection that starts from next Wednesday. The airline says that this flight is nearly sold out on both the India-US and US-India routes for December and January -- despite the fact that its fare for the nonstop on this route is higher than the fare of popular foreign airlines flying one-stop on this route through their hubs in Gulf or Europe.
AI has been struggling for years to make its longhaul flights profitable and this is possibly the first time that a new launch has been sold out for next two months. "The yields have been much higher on this flight (which in common man language means fare are high). Our fares were a little more than competing foreign airlines. Still the response has been tremendous, proving that travellers want direct point-to-point connectivity instead of getting off planes at some intermediary hubs and then going through the hassle of security checks and boarding again," said a senior AI official.
For instance, a return ticket on this sector in last week of December was costing between Rs 83,000 and Rs 91,000 on some leading Southeast Asian, Gulf and European carriers. AI return fare for the nonstop was Rs 94,000. AI new chairman Ashwani Lohani is personally overseeing the revenue department of the airline and is trying to maximize earnings while trying to ensure that travellers get a premium feel.
27/11/15 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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AI has been struggling for years to make its longhaul flights profitable and this is possibly the first time that a new launch has been sold out for next two months. "The yields have been much higher on this flight (which in common man language means fare are high). Our fares were a little more than competing foreign airlines. Still the response has been tremendous, proving that travellers want direct point-to-point connectivity instead of getting off planes at some intermediary hubs and then going through the hassle of security checks and boarding again," said a senior AI official.
For instance, a return ticket on this sector in last week of December was costing between Rs 83,000 and Rs 91,000 on some leading Southeast Asian, Gulf and European carriers. AI return fare for the nonstop was Rs 94,000. AI new chairman Ashwani Lohani is personally overseeing the revenue department of the airline and is trying to maximize earnings while trying to ensure that travellers get a premium feel.
27/11/15 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
