Till now, airlines in India have been fighting for market share on busy metro routes, with Mumbai-Delhi being the biggest battle ground. But the action may soon shift to smaller towns as airlines wake up to the potential across the Indian hinterland.
SpiceJet is already doing this in a big way through its Bombardier Q400 fleet operations. There was some talk earlier of IndiGo preparing to launch a new subsidiary for operating an ATR fleet (which the company subsequently denied) and now it is the turn of Air India. A senior airline official told Firstpost that Air India is in the final stages of making a decision on how many and which small aircraft to procure to strengthen its operations in tier II and tier III cities. It may lease as many as 11 turboprops for this purpose.
A study group within the airline, which carried out an extensive feasibility study for enhancing operations in tier II and tier III towns, will soon recommend how many turbo-prop aircraft should be taken on lease and on which routes these aircraft should be deployed.
20/06/13 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
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SpiceJet is already doing this in a big way through its Bombardier Q400 fleet operations. There was some talk earlier of IndiGo preparing to launch a new subsidiary for operating an ATR fleet (which the company subsequently denied) and now it is the turn of Air India. A senior airline official told Firstpost that Air India is in the final stages of making a decision on how many and which small aircraft to procure to strengthen its operations in tier II and tier III cities. It may lease as many as 11 turboprops for this purpose.
A study group within the airline, which carried out an extensive feasibility study for enhancing operations in tier II and tier III towns, will soon recommend how many turbo-prop aircraft should be taken on lease and on which routes these aircraft should be deployed.
20/06/13 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post
