The Hindu : IA panel to augment international route operations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

IA panel to augment international route operations

By T.S. Shankar

CHENNAI, FEB. 13. Indian Airlines (IA) has constituted a high-powered committee, headed by its Deputy Managing Director, to review its international route operations and study the market potential to help in meeting the emerging challenges. "Our thrust will be on providing additional capacity on international routes besides augmenting capacity on certain domestic sectors, replacing Boeing-737 operations with Airbus-320 jets, which are shortly going to be dry leased, Sunil Arora, Chairman and Managing Director, said here today.

Talking to The Hindu after chairing a review meeting of the Southern Region base, Mr. Arora said that with the induction of four leased Airbus-320 jets, the airline would be in a better position not only to open up newer international routes but also augment its capacity on the domestic sectors. Four A-320 leased planes would be inducted in the summer schedule from June. The IA Southern Region was high among the priority bases, which would have newer links. The airline was considering offering increased capacity on the Chennai-Bangalore-Pune, Chennai-Hyderabad-Chennai, Kochi-Kozhikode-Mumbai, Bangalore-Mumbai-Bangalore sectors besides replacing the Boeing link to Port Blair from Chennai with an Airbus-320.

The committee, constituted on February 6, was given two months to table its report to enable IA to take it up with the Board of Directors. A seven-member task force would identify geographical areas, markets and routes beyond its present network of operations. The members of the committee, which has T.S. Chandrasekar, Deputy Managing Director, as its Chiarman, are: S. Chawla, Director (Finance); M. Paes, Managing Director, Allied Air Services Limited; A.K. Goyal, Director (Commercial); Anita Khurana, Director (Cargo) and Rajan Dayal, Director (Engineering). Yashvir Kumar, Director (Planning and Project) is the Convener.

The committee would also examine the market potential, both short and medium-term, besides identifying suitable (size and range) aircraft which would be needed for such markets in the near future. According to top IA sources, between April 2001 and October 2003, IA took 11 Airbus-320 aircraft on lease at different stages. It withdrew widebodied Airbus-300s due to their "ageing", which required major repairs. Seven Airbus-300s were withdrawn and 11 A-320s inducted for three or five years. IA lost one of its Boeing-737 in a crash at the Patna airport in July 2000. Consequently, its installed seat capacity was reduced by about 1,850 seats, which was compensated by the simultaneous induction of 11 leased Airbus-320s adding about 1,600 seats. However, owing to optimal utilisation of A-320 fleet, especially in terms of seat km offered on different routes, there was a marginal capacity increase by about 3 per cent a year.

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