AI may set up European hub in Munich

New Delhi: Air India’s long wait for a European hub could end soon. The German city of Munich is emerging as the favourite over other contender cities like Frankfurt and Vienna. A formal announcement is expected in the coming days.
Just like Jet Airways offering scissor connections between India and Europe and North America from its hub in Brussels, AI plans to connect a large number of Indian cities to its European hub.
"If Munich is the final choice for the hub, we will try to launch flights from Mumbai this year itself. Our Star Alliance partner, Lufthansa, has a Delhi-Munich flight and we will first focus on Metros where neither we, nor our partners have a connection to Munich," said a senior official.
AI will continue its direct flights to three European cities even after the hub gets operational — Paris, London and Frankfurt. However, a severe shortage of planes — worsened by delay announced by Boeing for the 787 Dreamliner — will mean that AI will be able to achieve the plan of linking important metros to its hub with a daily flight only in next three to four years.
18/01/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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