Mumbai: Air India Express, the low-cost arm of loss-making state-owned carrier Air India (AI), will move its engineering and maintenance facilities to Thiruvananthapuram from here in three months. The move, according to airline officials, will help AI Express reduce costs and increase fleet utilisation.
AI Express Chief Operating Officer S Chandrakumar confirmed the development. “We hope to start the maintenance facilities in June. The Airport Authority of India is constructing an approach taxiway to the hangar and that is expected to be complete by May-end,” he said.
It has already set up a hangar to accommodate two Boeing 737 planes and hopes to utilise the facility to service planes of other companies. “This will serve as a revenue stream for the airline,’’ an airline official said.
The airline has 21 Boeing 737-800 planes and almost all of these are based either in Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangalore or other cities in South India.
These planes largely fly on the busy Gulf routes, which account for about 40 per cent of international traffic from India. Since there is no engineering set-up in any of these cities, these planes fly to Mumbai once a week or once a fortnight for routine maintenance. The flight schedule is prepared keeping in mind the maintenance schedule.
13/04/11 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard
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