The Hindu : Alliance Air to get 50-seater for NE operations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 20, 2002

National

National

Alliance Air to get 50-seater for NE operations

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi Dec.19. Air connectivity to the northeast is set to improve substantially with the proposed induction of four ATR-42-320 aircraft into the fleet of Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Indian Airlines.

Alliance Air is taking the 50-seater turbo prop aircraft on lease for a period of five years. While the first of the four aircraft will reportedly be received today, the second one will reach in the next few days and the remaining two will reach within a month. The inaugural flight with the ATR-42 will be launched on December 25 on the Kolkata-Guwahati-Dimapur-Agartala-Kolkata sector.

The Civil Aviation Minister, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, gave this information to the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry here today. As these were smaller aircraft, they would be able to cover more locations in the region and were comparatively more economical for short haul operations.

The Minister said seat availability would go up by 1,500 seats and would enable the airlines to operate on new routes such as Kolkata-Shillong, Guwahati-Aizwal, Guwahati-Dimapur and Silchar-Agartala besides increasing frequency on the existing sectors. To enable these operations several improvements had been carried out in airport infrastructure in the northeastern region. Major extensions/modifications had been done at Guwahati, Tezpur, Silchar, Lilabari, Imphal, Dimapur, Agartala and Aizwal airports.

Mr. Hussain said Air India and IA had initiated steps for greater synergies through hub and spoke agreements and through seamless transfers at some airports. IA now had 23 flights a week on domestic routes as hub and spoke arrangements with Air India. Seamless transfer of passengers between Air India and IA had also commenced at Delhi and Mumbai airports from December 1, which would be a major convenience to passengers.

In order to augment capacity and pending purchase of new aircraft, the Board of IA had approved dry-lease of five additional A-320 aircraft for a period of three years, extendible by two years. The aircraft would be delivered between February and May 2003, he added.

He also informed the meeting about Haj arrangements made by Air India, IA and Saudi Arabian Airlines this year, for carrying a total of 72,000 Haj pilgrims to and fro India-Jeddah. Haj pilgrims would be carried from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gaya, Lucknow, Srinagar, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kozhikode. From January 2002, IA would operate 15 hub and spoke Haj services between Gaya and Kolkata on behalf of Air India.

Participating in the discussion, members suggested that night landing facility might be provided at all the airports in the northeastern region. Now only two airports, including Gujarat and Agential, had this facility. While expressing concern over the average age of the fleet, members also suggested that the airlines should go for purchase of new aircraft instead of going for leased aircraft.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National