Edition 37
Air India, in one of its press releases in November last year said that it would add four new international destinations in the next six months. The airline announced the launch of flights to Phuket, which have since been made daily and that has been the only international station that it has launched after the announcement in November. The airline has also launched Bhuj, on the domestic side. However, there has been radio silence since then, on both – the new destinations and the A350s coming to India, two of which are here and as per earlier announcements the remaining four are to land by March 31.
As we end this quarter and financial year, the expansion has been slower than one would have imagined. While the five ex-Delta and six ex-Etihad B777s have been inducted in the fleet, there has been no talk about the ex-Singapore Airlines aircraft either.
All this while there have been umpteen rumours on the routes across media. These have included Dallas, Boston, Los Angeles, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, Zurich and Jakarta. Some of these have also made it to the websites of airports at regular intervals, a case where both the airline and airport have missed updating the start date. The rumoured destinations far outnumber the count which Air India had themselves shared.
One would assume that such tall announcements are made not for marketing but with real intent, be it delivery of aircraft or new destination launch. What then makes the airline take a backseat? Is it the new Flight Duty Time Limits (FDTL) which is due to come into effect from June is something which is impacting the airline? One can only hope that the announcements are well followed up. The eyes of the world are on India and Indian aviation and announcements which are not followed up with matching actions only puts doubts in the minds of the analysts worldwide.
In what is dubbed as one of the greatest turnaround stories in the aviation world, Air India is being looked at not just by Indians in India or Indians across the seven seas, but by the entire world. Will the announcements see the light of the day in the next three weeks or be slipped to April and beyond?
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