Impressive achievements for Air India Express in three years since inception

Air India Express, the wholly-owned low-cost subsidiary of National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) says it has made rapid progress in terms of fleet and network expansion and number of passengers carried, since its inception three years ago on 29 April 2005.

Commencing operations with three leased aircraft, Air India Express (AIE) says it now operates a fleet of 18 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the most technologically advanced single-aisle jet aircraft. It aims at operating a fleet of 25 aircraft by the end of 2009.

Compared to about 500,000 passengers carried in its inaugural year, AIE said it has ferried 1.8 million passengers during the fiscal, ending March 2008.

It currently operates 153 weekly flights between 13 Indian cities, namely Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Trichy, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Kolkata, Jaipur, Lucknow, Delhi and Amritsar and 12 international stations viz Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Al Ain, Salalah, Bahrain, Doha, Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok on the network.

AIE said it proposes to further expand its services by introducing flights to Kuwait from Kerala, Mangalore and Ahmedabad; to Dubai from Goa, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. It will also launch flights to Dhaka from Kolkata.

The carrier also touted the advantages of its Internet-based reservations system, which it says is very customer-friendly. It allows passengers to make reservations from home, offices or through appointed travel agents. Passengers have access to fares and availability of seats, which makes it an extremely transparent system.