Air India will expand its regional connectivity by expanding fleet of small aircrafts operated by its regional subsidiary Alliance Air to 35 aircrafts by 2017, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani said.
He said aircraft induction is already happening and would pick up pace, adding that by 2017 there would be 35 aircrafts in the fleet from the existing 12.
A fresh batch of 23 cabin crew of Air India subsidiary, Alliance Air, was inducted by Lohani in Delhi Tuesday. The 23 young men and women will begin regular flying duties on the ATRs and CRJs of Alliance Air.
Lohani was buoyant about the turnaround of Air India and Alliance Air.
Alliance Air, created to focus on tier 2 and tier 3 cities in 1996, operates air services with a leased fleet of 3 CRJ (70 Seater), 4 ATR 42-320 (48 Seater) and 5 ATR 72-600 (70 Seater) type of aircraft.
The Air India subsidiary has its base stations at Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad & Mumbai and has 226 (including schedule charter) flight departures per week and 32 flight departures per day.