Air India Express Dubai base opens, aims to tackle flight delays

Dubai: India’s Minister of Civil Aviation Vayalar Ravi inaugurated the Dubai base of Air India Express with an aim to strengthen and smoothen the operation of all Air India flights in and out of Dubai.
Addressing media in Dubai on Monday, the minister said that setting up of the base in Dubai will help the airline offer better connectivity and improved customer services. The location advantages of Dubai include multi-cultural and cosmopolitan business environment and a growing market with easy access to skilled manpower needed for aviation business, he said.
The base in Dubai would be geared to performing some of the maintenance functions, which are presently being handled out of Mumbai. It is envisaged that some tie-ups with leading airline Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MROs) in the Gulf would lead to a mutually beneficial business partnership.
Dubai would also become an operational base for stationing the pilots, cabin crew and other personnel needed for stepping up flight operations.
Ravi expressed confidence that the base would help avoid further delays due to lack of maintenance support.
Talking about fleet planning and flight operations, CMD of Air India Arvind Jadhav said that more flights could be planned from Dubai with the objective of providing transfers from India to destinations in the Gulf or Europe with transfer connections at Dubai.
As the airline has already two aircrafts positioned in Dubai for operating flights, the on time performance has increased significantly in recent months.
26/04/11 Imran Mojib/Gulf Today.com

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Categories: Air India Budget Apr 2011, Airports Apr 2011, Foreign Apr 2011