AirAsia India expands its flight operations in India
AirAsia India to venture overseas
Budget carrier AirAsia is on an expansion spree and has rolled out plans to connect tier-II and III cities in addition to initiating overseas operations.
Earlier last week, a top official of AirAsia India reported that the carrier has charted out expansion plans to connect more tier-II and III cities and set a target to commence flights to overseas destinations by January 2019. This statement followed the induction of AirAsia’s 16th aircraft and the addition of Nagpur and Indore to its list of destinations.
According to AirAsia India, Managing Director and CEO, Amar Abrol, the airliner has planned to commence overseas operation by January 2019 once it has 20 or more planes. “Our strategy is that once we get to 20 planes (operating in domestic operations) we will start flying international. Mostly, it will be to South East Asian countries,” he told Indian news agency, PTI.
A spokesperson of AirAsia told Media India Group that the expansion plans were adopted to survive the competitive aviation market. He stated, “One has to evolve in a competitive market to stay relevant. Many of our flyers are first time flyers and we plan to tap this and make it a sustainable relationship. To do so, we have to connect more destinations that were still untapped by our flights and more importantly expand our operations overseas. Even though there is existing competition but the demand is there.”
Amar Abrol stated that the plan is to connect more and more tier II and III cities in India, wherever A320 can go and also start flying international after crossing 20 aircraft. Elaborating, he said, the company would serve those markets which were already connected by the airliner’s group entities—AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Indonesia, AirAsia Thailand. “We will be flying mostly to Malaysia, Indonesia, and neighbouring SAARC countries as well. Bangladesh, Nepal and so on and so forth,” he said.
Closely following the announcement of expansion, AirAsia India expanded its fleet size to 18 planes with the induction of a new Airbus A320, which will help it add new routes and enhance the frequency between Kolkata and Bagdogra.
The 18th A320 aircraft will be stationed in Kolkata, which is the third base for the Tata Sons-AirAsia invested domestic carrier. Bengaluru and New Delhi are the two other bases of AirAsia India besides Kolkata, which serves as the gateway to its North-East operations. The induction of 18th plane in the fleet, AirAsia India will mark the launch of new daily flight services from Kolkata to Visakhapatnam, Imphal, Guwahati, Pune, and Bagdogra, starting May 11.
Bookings for all the new routes opened from early morning on Tuesday. The airline said that it is offering promotional fares as low as INR 1,699 for flights connecting Kolkata to Visakhapatnam, Imphal, Guwahati and INR 3,499 for the Kolkata-Pune services. This is seen as one of the many steps towards realising the carrier’s expansion goals.
