Kanpur: Air India plans to make Guwahati the hub for its Northeast operations. The national carrier wants to include remote regions in the Northeast and east in its flight schedules to increase its flagging market share.
In the next six to eight months, Air India is planning to get as many as sixteen 40-70 seater aircraft on lease to start operations in these regions.
“Many areas in the Northeast do not still have a single flight connecting them to a single nearest metropolitan city. We are going to start regular flights from places such as Imphal, Aizwal, Dimapur and connect them to Guwahati and other cities in the region,” said a senior Air India official who did not want to be named.
Air India will have to set up a maintenance base and open other services at the airport in Guwahati. The national carrier’s subsidiary — Alliance Air — will be operating the flights. Alliance will induct mainly two types of planes — the CRJ-700 jets and turbo-prop ATRs. These two aircraft have lower operating costs because of the hefty concessions they get on landing and parking charges.
At present, around 30 flights operate between Calcutta and places such as Agartala, Dimapur and Aizwal. According to Air India officials, around 35 to 40 flights will operate from Guwahati to cities in the Northeast.
30/05/11 Karan Chowdhury/The Telegraph
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