AI Express to start budget domestic flights

New Delhi: Air India's international low-cost carrier (LCC), AI Express, is planning to launch budget domestic flights from next March, linking metros like Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata with tier II cities in the initial phase.
However, these flights will commence from Delhi only from next winter. The lag is due to the fact that the airline hopes to get its pilots trained for taking off and landing in dense fog by that time. Budget fliers from Mumbai will also have to wait as the airline has decided to cancel its only foreign flight out of the city. The much-maligned LCC is also trying to change its image by renaming itself as Express India and shifting headquarters from Mumbai to Cochin as a majority of its 204 weekly flights operate from the south. In another big change, its all-economy configuration Boeing 737-800 aircraft will get eight business-class seats in the two front rows in the place of 18 budget seats. Termed super economy, the fares for these eight seats will be double the economy charges and the seats may also have inflight entertainment.
27/10/10 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India Budget Oct 2010, NACIL Oct 2010, New Oct 2010