Air India Express, a subsidiary of national carrier Air India, will enter the domestic low-cost space in a few months. The plan, however, is still in the proposal stage, said Tara Naidu, chief commercial officer, Air India Express.
The subsidiary already flies on Gulf, South Asia and Southeast Asia routes.
Naidu said, “We want to get into domestic operations because people prefer low-cost carriers to full-service ones. Our domestic operations will cover both metros and non-metros and our existing fleet, along with that of Air India, will be used for this venture,” she said.
Air India’s fleet stands at 68, of which 22 planes belong to Air India Express. Naidu said the parent’s other resources, too, will be redeployed for the arm’s domestic operations.
On the likelihood of the new service cannibalising the parent’s operations, she said, “To some extent there will cannibalisation but we will offer both low-cost and full-service flights on routes that have demand for both. In small towns, the concentration of low-cost flights will be higher.”
On the international front, the subsidiary is looking to expand to Delhi-Kuala Lumpur and introduce new flights on routes such as Thiruvananthapuram-Muscat and Mangalore-Abu Dhabi. Three new flights will be added to the Trichy-Kuala Lumpur route.
Air India Express operates 202 flights a week to 14 destinations outside India from 17 cities.
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