Air India Express – the low cost arm and a fully owned subsidiary of Air India is expanding operations this summer. The airline started receiving the first of 190 MAX aircraft towards the end of last year and since then it has been expanding selectively, largely on domestic routes taking on IndiGo on its monopolies and in the process launched flights to Gwalior and Ayodhya.
As part of its summer schedule in 2024, Air India Express will offer over 360 daily departures, connecting a wide range of business and leisure destinations. Compared to last year’s Summer Schedule, Air India Express is growing its network significantly, with over 25% increase in domestic and over 20% in international flights. This translates to an additional 55 domestic flights and 19 international flights, bringing the total to 259 domestic and 109 international departures, as per the airline.
Erstwhile AirAsia India which is to merge with Air India Express will continue to operate under a separate operational code but be sold via one website for now.
The airline will be increasing its frequencies to international destinations such as Abu Dhabi, Dammam, Jeddah, and Sharjah. The airline will boost its presence by increasing domestic and international frequencies from Ayodhya, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kannur, Kolkata, Kochi, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, and Varanasi, aiming to provide guests with a more extensive and well-connected travel experience.
Independent analysis done with the data obtained from Cirium – an aviation analytics company shows that Air India Express will operate 75 additional international weekly flights in May 2024 as compared to May 2023. This has translated into 13,280 additional weekly flights. The total weekly departures would be at 382 international departures. On the domestic front, the increase is huge since Air India Express hardly had a presence on domestic routes in May 2023. The airline will operate 722 weekly departures on domestic routes. Combined, the airline will offer 1104 weekly departures.
The airline will have its highest presence at Bengaluru with 155 weekly departures, followed by Hyderabad with 132 weekly departures. Calicut (86 weekly), Kochi (68 weekly) and Delhi (63 weekly) complete the top 5. However, in terms of seats on offer, Trivandrum comes in at number five, pushing Delhi to sixth with 11382 seats on offer per week as compared to 11088 seats on offer, likely due to the deployment of B737-800NG on routes out of Trivandrum which have higher capacity as compared to the newly acquired MAX8 which are in dual class.
Focus on Kannur
The airline will add flights on existing routes to Abu Dhabi and Muscat along with opening a new route to Ras al Khaimah from Kannur. All these additions and changes are effective May 01, 2024. The airline will also start operations to Dammam from Kannur, effective May 02, 2024.
Kannur airport has been at the receiving end of the market condition with the government refusing to add Kannur to point of call for foreign carriers. From the Indian side, Go FIRST had a significant presence. The airline filed for bankruptcy in May 2023. IndiGo offers connectivity to only one international destination from Kannur.
The airport is the fourth international airport in the state of Kerala and has a catchment area which spans the Northern Malabar coast of the state and some parts of neighbouring Karnataka. It opened as a public private consortium in December 2018.
These additions mean a lot to Kannur airport and the passengers in the catchment area, who otherwise would travel to Mangalore or Calicut to catch a flight or opt for one stop flights.
Network Thoughts
Locked in a battle with IndiGo on domestic markets, Air India Express has been able to turn the tide against IndiGo on routes to the gulf. This pre privatisation phenomenon has been gaining momentum post privatisation.
With focus on Kannur, from where IndiGo operates, only one international connection (six times a week to Doha) will give it a huge advantage of operating monopoly routes, with limited one stop competition as well. Air India Express’ own strength at neighbouring Mangalore and Calicut means that it can play around with pricing to push up yields and also balance loads and yields between the three points as there is some overlap in the catchment area.
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NetworkThoughts 
CJB -Coimbatore is potential airport. AI express can restart flights to Singapore . In addition they may start CJB DXB – Dubai flights .there is a huge potential in this route also
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