IA to increase local reach

By Our Corporate Bureau | 26 Sep 2003

Bangalore: Indian Airlines plans to tie up with a domestic private airline to service regional routes through a hub-and-spoke arrangement.

The move could push back Indian Airlines'' plans to buy small-capacity aircraft such as ATRs to service its feeder routes, for which the airline had set up an experts committee for shortlisting the manufacturer a few years ago.

A senior IA official says the airline is in talks with Air Deccan to use its services as a feeder airline. Air Deccan is a low-cost, no-frills airline. The official says under the hub-and-spoke arrangement, passengers using Air Deccan''s flights need not book tickets separately for their onward journey.

A single ticket will ensure that they can travel by an IA flight to any of the destination covered by the airline. The official says the tie-up with a regional airline such as Air Deccan will lead to optimising the capacity utilisation of the airline.