Air India Express, the budget subsidiary of Air India, is set to launch Kolkata-Singapore flight four days a week which will be extended to Dhaka starting 18 November 2016 and has also planned to start Delhi-Tehran service next year.
The airline is increasing its fleet size to 22 by the end of this year and has planned for 36 aircraft by 2018.
“We will launch new flights to Singapore from Kolkata and Chennai besides a service to Dhaka from Kolkata. Apart from these, we are also going to connect Delhi-Tehran and Riyadh from Calicut during the winter schedule,” said K Shyamsunder, chief executive officer of Air India Express.
“There are lots of potential in Tehran as Iranians love to travel to Goa for leisure and India is also a preferred destination among the students there,” Shyamsunder added.
The budget carrier is also mulling to start Colombo service next year.
The airline posted a net profit of Rs 362 crore in the fiscal 2015-16 for the first time since its launch in 2005 and has increased its aircraft utilization rate to 12.4 per cent from previous 9 per cent.
He said that the performance depends upon financial viability and their utilization rate. The airline is also working on their vision 2026 model that will focus on fleet expansion, resource generation.
The Kochi-headquartered airline at present operates 475 services per week to 13 international airports across the Gulf and South-east Asia. Currently, it has a fleet of 21 Boeing 737 planes–17 owned and four on lease and the load factor stood at 81 per cent in the last quarter.
Air India Express carried 2.80 million passengers and earned Rs 2,900 crore in 2015-16 fiscal.
BW Reporters
Haider Ali Khan is an alumnus of IIMC. He holds a degree in English Journalism from the prestigious campus. His passion includes Aviation, Technology, Politics and Sports.
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