Tag Archives: Air India Express

Air India Express, a low-cost subsidiary of Air India, will commence flights to Imphal and Kochi from Kolkata on 4 April. The airline hopes to add two international services to Kathmandu and Dhaka from the city the following month. Meanwhile, the introduction of direct flights would boost travel in India.

Air India Express (AIX) will add 50 Boeing 737 Max aircraft to its fleet by December 2024. This will help the airline grow its existing West Asia network and launch new domestic and international routes, including those to Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and the Maldives.

Airindiaexpress.Com, the unified customer interface of Air India Express and AirAsia India – the two subsidiary airlines of Air India, has witnessed a surge of visitors within days of launch with the platform, contributing over 25% of international flight revenue on the first day itself, making it the dominant single source of reservations.

Air India Express has started the first direct flight from Vijayawada to Sharjah. The starting price for the Vijayawada-Sharjah segment is INR 13,669, whereas the starting price for the Sharjah-Vijayawada sector is AED 399. Air India Express also flies from Vijayawada to Muscat and Kuwait in addition to Sharjah using a B737-800 NG aircraft

Air India Express will launch its first direct flight service from Surat to Sharjah on February 16. The flight will depart from Sharjah at 7:35 PM and arrive in Surat at 11:45 PM on Mondays and Saturdays. From Surat, the flight will depart at 12:30 AM with arrival into Sharjah at 02:15 AM on Tuesdays and Sundays. This service will be upgraded to four flights a week in the summer schedule. The airline will also expand services from Gulf to Kannur in Kerala in its summer schedule 2019, which shall commence on March 31, 2019. “Summer 2019 will witness additional capacity being deployed to strengthen the network between Gulf and Kerala. There will be two more flights on Mondays and Fridays,” the statement said. The airline will operate five flights on the Kozhikode-Riyadh sector in the Summer schedule’19 instead of the present four services per week. The additional flight will operate on Fridays at the existing timings. Operating with a fleet of 25 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, the airline will have 653 weekly departures in the new schedule, as against 621 per week currently. The increase in operations will be achieved through capacity addition and by increasing aircraft utilisation, which is poised to go up from about 13.3 hours currently to 13.4 hours per day per aircraft in the summer schedule, the airline said. Source: PTI

Sharing plans for 2018, K. Shyam Sundar, CEO, Air India Express, said that the focus for the LCC will be Kannur, located about 90 kms north of Calicut, which is slated to get a brand new international airport this year. Sundar says, “The focus market for us for 2018-19 will be Kannur. We expect the new airport to be functional by June 2018. We have requested the Kerala Government to allow us to be the first carrier to operate international flights from the new airport. In fact, the two aircraft we are going to induct is probably going to be based or largely operated to and from Kannur. We intend to connect Kannur to about four to five destinations in the Gulf.” Kannur is an extremely important market for AIE. The new airport is a PPP project and will be larger than the one in Calicut in terms of runway length. It will be a table-top airport. Currently, passengers from Kannur have to travel to Calicut to take flights. Sundar also revealed that AIE will make its four-month old non-stop Madurai-Singapore flight to a daily in the summer schedule. It will also add some new routes in the summer which will be a direct link between Kochi, Kuwait and Bahrain. Air India Express currently flies to 15 international destinations: Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Ras Al Khaimah, Bahrain, Dammam, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat, Salalah, Singapore, KualaLumpur, Riyadh & Dhaka from 15 Indian cities – Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthpuram, Mangalore, Chennai, Tiruchirapally, Mumbai, Pune, Amritsar, Lucknow, Jaipur, Varanasi, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chandigarh. On the domestic front, it operates flights between Chennai-Thiruvananthpuram-Chennai, Kozhikode-Thiruvananthpuram-Kozhikode, Kochi-Thiruvananthpuram-Kochi and Kochi-Kozhikode.

Air India’s international budget carrier, Air India Express (AIE) expands its wings to Vijayawada International Airport, with the introduction of non-stop connectivity to Mumbai. The services on Mumbai–Vijayawada sector commenced on January 19, 2018. The Mumbai service will be available thrice a week, on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The flight will depart from Mumbai at 8am and arrive in Vijayawada at 9.45 am. In the return direction, the flight departs from Vijayawada at 10.30 am and will arrive at Mumbai at 12:10 pm. Air India already connects Vijayawada to Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. With the new service the city of Vijayawada is now being connected to major metros in the country. Air India Express, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India Limited, Head- Quartered at Kochi, Kerala. It has a fleet of 23 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, six of which are brand new having joined the fleet recently. These new aircrafts are equipped to carry more and come with lighter seats and higher performance capabilities. Though the airline follows the market principles of a low-cost carrier, Air India Express offers complimentary tea, coffee and meals on board as its USP, said AIE in a press release on Wednesday.

Air India is reportedly going to involve its core aviation assets packaged with low-cost subsidiary Air India Express and AI-SATS for sale as part of its disinvestment process. Apart from that the non-core assets, which includes Air India building in Mumbai and other offices, will not be a part of the sale but part of the special purpose vehicle (SPV). Core aviation assets include aircraft, slots at airports and flying rights to various countries. Both Air India Express and AI-SATS are profit-making subsidiaries of Air India. The other Air India arms — profit-making Air India Air Transport Services and loss-making Air India Engineering Services — will be sold separately. The SPV will include Air India’s non-aircraft debt as well as non-core assets. Source: Economic Times  

Air India plans to start a direct flight from Chandigarh to Bangkok from December 11, 2017, which will operate thrice a week, informed R K Negi, Local Manager, Air India. He said, “The direct flight from Chandigarh to Bangkok will commence on December 11 this year and the round trip initially will cost Rs. 22,000, while the rest of the cost will depend on the demand.” Negi also added that the airline’s latest aircraft – Airbus A320 Neo, will operate on this route and will offer 12 Business Class seats and 150 Economy Class seats. This aircraft will operate every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Chandigarh-Bangkok flight will be the third international flight operating from the Chandigarh International Airport. At present Indigo’s Chandigarh-Dubai and Air India Express’ Chandigarh-Sharjah flights are the only two international flights operating from Chandigarh. Source: Hindustan Times

Air India’s low-cost arm Air India Express will launch direct flights between Delhi and Madurai with effect from September 15. The introductory one-way fare offered on Delhi-Madurai sector starts from Rs 3,975 and the return journey fare starts from Rs 7,950, the airline said in a statement. The service will be offered four days in a week i.e. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The airline will also be offering passengers the additional facility to buy special meals of their choice online on select sectors, the statement added. The budget carrier currently operates around 545 flights per week, connecting 15 Indian cities to 14 destinations in the Middle East and South East Asia. The airline has a fleet of 23 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft.