Air India to commence hub operations from Frankfurt

02 March 2009

New Delhi: In a move aimed at strengthening its global network, flag carrier Air India, will launch its first international hub at Frankfurt by the end of the month. The hub will enable the carrier to launch scissor operations, to and from North America, with a brand new fleet of Boeing aircraft.

"The Frankfurt hub will become operational on 29 March, the beginning of the summer schedule, for some of Air India's flights and will offer more convenient connections to a larger originating traffic," airline's executive director, Jitender Bhargava, said here.

AI's move follows in the footsteps of the country's largest private carrier, Jet Airways, which operates a international hub at Brussels.

According to the tentative schedule worked out by AI, it will take about 19 hours, including the changeover time at Frankfurt, for a passenger to reach the US cities from India.

A Delhi-Chicago flight would depart at 0130 hours, arrive Frankfurt at 0600 hours (local time) and reach Chicago in the morning at 1030 hours (local time). The changeover timing at Frankfurt would be "realistic and minimal" as most of Air India's aircraft would be parked side by side and a passenger would just have to shift from one gate to the other.

The state-owned national carrier also indicated it would not reduce frequencies in summer, but "restructure its West-bound operations to improve its reach by covering larger geographical areas", Bhargava said.