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Air-India,
India’s flying ambassador, has expanded its fleet in the recent
months by inducting 10 aircraft on dry lease-one Boeing 747-400
and nine Airbus 310s. Two more A310s and one B747-400 aircraft on
dry lease are expected to join the fleet soon. Air-India has also
recently gifted three A300-B4 aircraft to Ariana Afghan Airlines
to help resurrect the civil aviation sector of Afghanistan.
Induction of the dry leased aircraft has enabled Air-India to enhance
frequencies to many of the existing destinations and introduce several
new flights, including the five times a week service on the India-Paris-Newark
sector, and recommencement of flights to Frankfurt.
Air-India proposes to increase flights on the India-Newark sector
from five to seven per week and on the India-Frankfurt-Chicago sector
from three to six per week. While the existing three flights to
Chicago are operated via London, the three additional flights will
be routed through Frankfurt.
Air-India is also concurrently engaged in an exercise to evaluate
its requirements for
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induction
of Long Range and Short Range aircraft during the five-year period
2003-04 – 2007-08. Induction of these aircraft will help Air-India
further enhance its global network.
As far as the Gulf and Middle East region is concerned, Air India
covers ten stations operating flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Al
Ain, Muscat, Doha, Bahrain, Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Kuwait with
flights to Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Trivandrum,
Cochin, Calicut, Chennai and Lucknow.
The main focus for the schedule from the Gulf region has been to
give direct connectivity to internal points in India thereby making
it a quicker and more efficient service.
From Africa, Air India has two weekly flights from Nairobi and Dar
Es Salaam to Mumbai with connections to interior points in India.
Air India has arrangements for trucking cargo from various hubs
in India and also provides inter- city connectivity. Shippers and
cargo agents have therefore wider options and can ensure that cargo
reaches its destination in the quickest possible time.
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Air
Canada launches daily non-stop flights between North America and
India
Air
Canada, the Canadian airline, has launched its daily non-stop service
from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport to the Indian capital
of Delhi. "Our new daily non-stop service to Delhi offers customers
the only direct air link between North America and India saving
at least three hours off alternate routings and providing excellent
connection possibilities for flights to cities throughout Canada
and the United States," said Montie Brewer, Executive Vice
President, Commercial, Air Canada.
Flights on Air Canada's new Delhi route are operated using state-of-the-art
282-seat Airbus A340 aircraft offering a choice of Executive First
and Hospitality service. Air Canada has timed its Delhi service
to offer excellent connections throughout North America via Air
Canada's main hub in Toronto to and from all major cities across
Canada and United States. An early evening arrival in Delhi offers
travellers a number of options for connections to cities within
India and Sri Lanka.
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| Thai
Airways’ new destination in India |
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Thai
Airways International is adding three new destinations, namely
Chennai in India, Guilin in China, and Luang Prabang in Laos,
on its international routenet for its winter schedule starting
from October 26, 2003 till March 27, 2004. Routes and frequencies
will also be increased for international and domestic flights.
Kanok Abhiradee, Thai’s President, said that the changes are
being implemented to cater to the growing demand in trade
and investment as well as among businessmen and tourists.
Thai
Airways expects its revenues from India to soar high, on account
of rising traffic as well as a step-up in its operations.
At present, the airline earns $6 million per month, but this
would rise with
the expansion of its service.
In October, the airline began its
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Bangkok-Chennai-Dubai-Chennai-Bangkok
service. The introduction of the
Chennai-Bangkok service is
mainly due to the increase in the number of people traveling
to Thailand (last year touched 45,000 people). Accordingly,
Thai Airways intends to start a Bangkok-Bangalore service next
year.
Chaiwat Chanapai of Thai Airways, said that the "free trade
philosophy" between India and Thailand would bring in more
trade, and hence more traffic.
New routes are also to be introduced in both the international
and domestic networks: Sydney-Melbourne-Phuket-Bangkok, Tokyo-Chiang
Mai, and Chiang Mai-Rangoon.
The
routes that will have increased frequencies are Bangkok-London
v.v., Bangkok-Frankfurt v.v.,
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Bangkok-Copenhagen v.v., Bangkok-Seoul
v.v., Bangkok-Jakarta v.v., Bangkok-Colombo v.v., and Bangkok-Krabi
v.v.
This is due to the increasing number of passengers as well
as delivery of two new Boeing 747-400 aircraft in October
this year.
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