Air India downgrades aircraft on Singapore route

Mumbai: National carrier Air India has downgraded aircraft it flies on Singapore and Bangkok routes. The airline cited a slump in the load factors on the routes as the reason for deployment of smaller aircraft.
Air India would now be using Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 type with a capacity of 122 seats instead of a 200-seater Airbus A310. This will result in reduction of capacity by 14 per cent on the route for the airline.
The move has saved Air India from cutting frequencies as it offers connectivity from different parts within the country to fly to Singapore and instead rationalise the route by cutting the number of the seats.
Incidentally, Singapore route was one of the cash cows for both the domestic and international carriers till the economic slump hit the industry. Recently, even Singapore Airlines, the Singapore flag-carrier, has been forced to slash frequencies on the route.
“We have reduced the number of the flights to-and-fro from Chennai and Bangalore as there was a dip in load factors on these routes. But Mumbai and Delhi are still holding for us,” said the spokesperson of Singapore Airlines. However, the Naresh Goyal-led private carrier, Jet Airways — which deploys a Boeing 737 and a Boeing 777 300ER on the route — said that the load factors for the airliner have held up to at least 70 per cent and they would not be reducing any capacity on the route.
10/11/08 Manisha Singhal/Business Standard

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Categories: Air India - International Nov 2008, Foreign Nov 2008, NACIL Nov 2008