Plan to make Delhi as new Air India hub on anvil

New Delhi, Jan 28 : In its bid to provide better connectivity to international customers on the domestic front, public sector Air India has chalked out plans to develop Delhi as a new network hub.

The new plan, presently on the table, came after it was felt that its 'original' hub Mumbai was spilling at the seams, according to inside sources, who added that the alternate hub with its 'central location' help Air India offer linking facilities to the inbound traveller from abroad on the domestic circuit.

Besides this, as part of its overhaul process Air India was also having second thoughts over its Frankfurt base that was proving unduely costly ''as shifting the international hub from there could help it save a lot of money'' said the sources.

While a final decision on the issue has yet to be taken, the matter has been posted at the topmost level during the review meeting held recently, they said, adding that the move could help it concentrate, as of now, on its point-to-point traffic.

Also, as part of its rationalisation plan Air India plans to extend the delivery schedule of the three planes -- B777 300 -- besides targeting a higher load factor to bring about improvement in its capacity utilisation plans, they added.

Even as increasing revenue and slashing costs was the new chant in the Aviation Ministry, Air India has also embarked on a fresh plan to push its fleet utilisation by a couple of hours after it came to light that its average on this front was a mere 8.5 hours (per day) as compared to 12 hours with the private airlines.

The measures are part of the various steps being taken to bring back the crisis-riden airlines back on the rails, the sources added.

The government has already promised Rs 800 crore in fiscal 2009-10 and Rs 1,200 crore in 2010-11 to help it come out of the red.

Over and above this, more help is likely to come from the government to help the national carrier when the Air India borad meets soon and some action is taken on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC), headed by CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, which submitted its report to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari recently.

While recommending that the merger of Air India-Indian Airlines must continue to take on the challenges due to global competition, the PSC, that went into the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India and its impact on the civil aviation sector, called for some accountability in its functioning while condemning the faulty policies of the government for the colossal losses it suffered.

The PSC also asked for forming of an independent regulatory body to monitor its activities besides revisiting the service conditions of both companies to bring about a turnaround.

Along with this, the Group of Ministers (GoM) meet, to be held in the first week of the next month, will also take up Air India's turnaround plans, among other things related to equity infusion in the ailing public sector Air India.

Just yesterday, standing by its earlier decision on merging of AI-IA the government once again stressed that there was no rethink on its merger plans as it was a well thought out decision, made after taking into confidence all parties involved.

--UNI