Air India Express will focus on routes with price-sensitive customers, leisure travellers: MD
Air India Express will focus on routes which have a higher component of price-sensitive customers and leisure travellers, airline's Managing Director Aloke Singh has said. Singh also said that Air India Express is not looking at spreading its capacity all over the country in the beginning and instead will first consolidate its presence on the existing routes.
A subsidiary of Air India, Air India Express is in the process of merging low-cost domestic carrier AirAsia India with itself, and last week unveiled its new brand identity.
Air India Group, comprising Air India, Air India Express, AIX Connect and Vistara, is owned by the Tatas, which is also in the process of consolidating its airline business.
As part of it, Vistara, which is a 51:49 joint venture airline between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, is also in the process of merging with AI India.
«The focus of Air India Express will be on routes which have a higher component of leisure travellers, a higher component of price-sensitive customers.
In fact, more of non-business while Air India will focus primarily on routes which are higher yielding, which requires business class and a higher level of in-flight services,» Singh told PTI in an interaction.
He said that the Air India Express network will be structured in a manner that it flies to the destinations where Air India does not fly as it at present has different priorities.
It will have to be a rationalised network and therefore Air India Express, at least in the short term will not operate on routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, a route which has higher yield customers, and is served very well by Air India.
He said that the difficult part of the Air India Express-AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) merger has
