Tourism Summit 2016: Air India takes off on a new flight of reconstruction

The airline that came into being after the merger of the erstwhile Indian Airlines, which operated in the domestic market and Air India the international carrier, is soon to connect India with Madrid in Spain with a direct non-stop flight.

Listen to Story

Advertisement
Air India director (commercial) Pankaj Srivastava at the Mail Today Tourism Summit 2016 in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Air India director (commercial) Pankaj Srivastava at the Mail Today Tourism Summit 2016 in New Delhi on Tuesday.

In Short

  • Air India embarks on a new flight of reconstruction
  • Air India joined the Star Alliance in July 2014
  • Air India starts flight operations between Delhi and Vienna

National carrier Air India has embarked on a new flight of reconstruction, improving customer satisfaction and charting new routes to connect India domestically as well as internationally.

"We connect India better than any other carrier and we connect India with the world as no one else," said Air India director (commercial) Pankaj Srivastava. The carrier has recently started flight operations between Delhi and Vienna in Austria. "It was very fast decision-making that led to making this flight operational. We decided it within 39 days as the Austrian carrier had wound up Delhi operations and wanted us to step in," he said. "Vienna is the gateway to central and east Europe and thus the potential," he added.

advertisement

The airline that came into being after the merger of the erstwhile Indian Airlines, which operated in the domestic market and Air India the international carrier, is soon to connect India with Madrid in Spain with a direct non-stop flight.

Srivastava said the airline was very successful in its Australia and Austria operations. "Our flights to and from Vienna are fully booked both ways for the next three months."

The carrier also has plans to further expand in the already burgeoning US. "US is the most important market for us. We connect India with US like nobody else. While we currently connect four cities - New York, Newark, San Francisco and Chicago - very soon we are adding another significant flight. We are working out viability studies to connect with Washington DC. We will connect two biggest democracies in the world."

About the quality of services, Srivastava said there was much to be desired but a lot had been done too. "We provide the best legroom in our planes and the maximum reclining angles to the seats in our economy class too. Our seats are widest in the economy class."

The Air India official also said that to begin with there was certain hiccups which actually emerged from the merger of two separate carriers - Air India and Indian Airlines.

"The two airlines had different work ethics, orders of organisation and also different unions. It took some time to iron out the differences but largely we seem to have achieved it," said Srivastava.

Indian Airlines officially merged into Air India on February 27, 2011.

In July 2014, the national carrier joined the Star Alliance, which has been benefitting passengers further.