Air India is presently undergoing one of the biggest transformations known to commercial aviation globally in recent times, bringing together its Vistara product to integrate within the larger entity of Air India. Meanwhile, its sister organization in the low-cost segment, Air India Express, is getting more aircraft for itself and from the Vistara fleet, promising a new era in business. Here, we speak in a quick one-on-one chat with Aloke Singh, CEO, on immediate prospects going forward.
AIX today: routes and aircraft
We operate more than 170 routes, with a fleet of 90-odd aircraft. Broadly, our capacity is split 50:50 between domestic and international routes.
Induction with some of Vistara aircraft’s adding to AIX muscle
Our current fleet size is ~90 aircraft, and we aim to close this financial year with 110+ aircraft. Over the next three years, we plan to expand our fleet to over 170 aircraft. As a strategy, our fleet is fungible across the two entities, and will include aircraft from the FSC entity, configured in our requirements, basis needs.
New routes on target
Many, on the back of a rapidly growing fleet, we have just announced Bangalore-Port Blair, Kolkata-Port Blair, Delhi-Jammu, and Srinagar-Jammu, in the current winter schedule. Over the next few months, we intend to add more domestic stations and expand to international destinations like Bangkok and Phuket.
Overall synergy with AI also growing simultaneously
We are unlocking synergies with Air India through various strategic initiatives – both on the cost and revenue side. The AI-AIX codeshare is already operational, enabling a seamless connection across the two networks over hubs at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. A unique feature is the sale of stand-alone domestic sectors under the code-share arrangement, whereby AI distributes our product in geographies where it has deep presence, like North America, UK/Europe and Australia. A network rationalization is already underway to not just to optimize connectivity, but also serve the markets with the right business model.
Flying routes rationale within the two carriers
At this stage of our network roll-out, generally not flying the same routes, given that the priority is to rationalise networks while we expand our footprint in India and the short-haul international markets. Thus, you will see us focusing on metro to non-metro routes generally, while AI serves the metro-to- metro markets. Of course, this does not mean we are totally absent from, say routes like Delhi Bangalore, where we have had a historic presence, our largest hub being Bangalore. Similarly, on short-haul international, we will generally serve overseas markets from tier 2 and 3 tier cities of India, and destinations like Sharjah or Dammam from Delhi/Mumbai, which have a greater proportion of value conscious customers.
Fare structure outlook between the two
Our fares will be competitive, and the structure will reflect the nature and needs of the market. We offer a comfortable and well-timed product, with unbundled fares – customers can choose features they want, like hot meals or extra baggage, basis their needs. This allows us to offer competitively priced fares to the market.
New city pairs envisaged
We recently introduced routes such as Hyderabad-Srinagar, Delhi-Indore, Cochin-Pune, Chennai-Pune, Goa-Chennai, Jaipur-Chennai, and Delhi-Muscat. We are also launching new routes like Bangalore-Port Blair, Kolkata-Port Blair, Delhi-Jammu, and Srinagar-Jammu. Over the next few months, we intend to add 8+ stations to expand our network.
How is the profitability looking for AIX? At present and going forward?
We are rapidly scaling up of our presence, with an expanding fleet and opening a large number of new stations, while keeping costs under intense scrutiny. In parallel, we are running a transformation programme, that has clear metrics for many areas, including financial. While we do not share financial data, our growth is basis a carefully assessed business case and profitability is fundamental to our transformation exercise.
