A-I plans 2nd hub in Germany

Mumbai: State-owned Air-India might decide in favour of having two airport hubs in Germany - one at Frankfurt and another in Munich.
The talks for the same are currently in progress with Air-India CMD V Thulasidas likely to announce the choice of hubs officially this week.
“Air India would ideally want to have both Frankfurt and Munich as European hubs as the airline does not want to vacate Frankfurt and also wants to establish Munich as a hub for operations after network expansion plans come through,” said an Air-India official close to the development, not wanting to be quoted.
Air-India is planning to use the Frankfurt hub for its flights to the US originating from Mumbai and New Delhi. It intends to use the passenger traffic from US flying into Frankfurt as a feed for the afternoon flights back to India. The airline currently operates daily flights to Frankfurt.
According to experts, having more than one hub in a country is a practice which is becoming popular with airlines. Such a move, however, is dependent on the availability of slots and if there are bilateral agreements between the countries, it makes all the more sense.
25/03/08 Manisha Singhal/Business Standard

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Categories: Air India - International Mar 2008, Foreign Mar 2008, NACIL Mar 2008, New Mar 2008