Harshit Singh
According to reports, Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group, is aiming to run flights to other US locations, including Los Angeles, and is monitoring a number of metrics.
The airline currently offers non-stop service to five American cities: Chicago, San Francisco, New York, New Jersey, and Washington, DC.
According to the sources, Los Angeles and Boston are two of the locations being considered as potential new long-distance flight destinations from India.
Currently, Air India and United Airlines are code share partners.
“We intend to grow (our base) in the US, and other cities are being considered as prospective new locations. Boston is one of them, and Los Angeles is also one of the cities being evaluated, according to one of the sources.
The source also stated, “We are also considering other metrics.”
According to aviation industry experts, starting a new destination necessitates considering a wide range of variables, such as fleet size, pilot strength, and traffic volume on the route.
According to the source, variables that need to be taken into account include the number of pilots already in service, training for cabin crew, and ground employees that will be stationed at an airport at the new location.
Numerous Indian nationals or persons of Indian ancestry reside in the US or have employment there, including students at different American universities. Numerous Indians travel to the United States.
According to the airline, Air India, which the Tata Group acquired in January of last year, is on the road to recovery.
Air India announced in February of this year that it would purchase 470 narrow-body and wide-body aircraft from Airbus and Boeing, with the entire deal value expected to be about USD 80 billion. This order is one of the largest aircraft purchases by an airline.
Under separate agreements, Air India will purchase 250 aircraft, including 40 wide-body A350 jets, from European aviation giant Airbus and 220 aircraft from US aircraft manufacturer Boeing.
40 A350-900/1000 and 210 A320/321 Neo/XLR are included in the Airbus firm order. 20 787s, 10 777s, and 190 737-Max aircraft are included in the firm Boeing deal.
According to industry insiders, Air India would need more than 6,500 pilots to fly 470 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing over the next few years.
A top Air India executive recently stated that the privatisation of Air India has “enabled Indian aviation” to touch a very, very large sector of the market that had previously “remained untapped”.
In India, the topic of privatisation has always been contentious, especially when it involves the national carrier Air India, to which many sentiments are tied.
Everyone wants Air India to be a national carrier that succeeds and endures. The fact that it was Tata, and the level of trust the name conjures, made things easier, is the second and most essential reason why it happened, the official said.
In addition, the representative claimed that if a person or brand is trusted, “you can go a long way, and people will go out of their way to support you, do business with you, and work with you.”
