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.
