State-owned Air India (AI) aims to substantially cut the number of routes not meeting variable costs, to reduce these to 19 per cent of its overall network by the end of the current financial year.

The carrier, which operates about 480 daily flights in the international and domestic sectors, had brought down the number of routes not meeting variable costs to 38 per cent of its network by the end of 2013-14, from 60 per cent.

As part of its personnel rationalisation drive, Air India is considering redeploying about 10 per cent of its employees to various departments in the ministry of civil aviation. Currently, the airline has about 13,000 employees. Of this, 1,500-1,600 are likely to be redeployed to organisations such as the Bureau of Civil Aviation Safety and the Airports Authority of India.

Air India (AI) plans to raise its capacity on domestic routes by using Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes. Currently, it uses the narrow body Airbus A320 on home routes.

Currently, it has 16 Boeing 787s and flies these to Europe, Japan, Singapore and Dubai. It also uses them on two domestic routes, Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Bangalore. It has 27 Boeing 787s on order and is expecting three additional planes till March 2015. It is expected to use these to ply on other metro routes.

NEW DELHI: Being a desi full service carrier ( FSC) is no longer enough. Tata-Singapore Airlines' soon-to-be-launched JV Vistara's announcement of introducing "uber luxury" has led to Air India and Jet joining the race to be the best in the full service segment.

While which airline emerges ahead remains to be seen, the consumer is the clear winner in this race.

NEW DELHI: Seven years after the merger of erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India was announced, the national carrier drew some criticism last week for celebrating 'Air India day' on August 27 - the day in 2007 when the merger process formally began.

The criticism was over alleged waste of a large amount of money when the airline is bleeding — a charge the management has vehemently denied. While the issue is still being debated in the media, a look at Air India's progress in the last two years shows that the airline has surely done some things right.

NEW DELHI: Air India's website, which went down two days ago after the airline offered a special fare of Rs 100, was apparently blocked by a few sites in India and abroad for a considerable time.

An unprecedented 80,000 hits a minute were recorded from some sites which blocked bookings by genuine passengers, the national carrier's Information Technology (IT) team found during internal investigations.

Air India is offering tickets at Rs 100 (excluding fuel surcharge, taxes and fees) for five days beginning Wednesday, to celebrate its merger anniversary with Indian Airlines.

Tickets will be sold only through the Air India website from August 27-31, for travel during August 27-September 30.

Air India is offering tickets at Rs 100 (excluding fuel surcharge, taxes and fees) for five days beginning Wednesday to celebrate the merger of Air India with Indian Airlines.

Tickets will be sold only through Air India website from August 27-31 and for travel during August 27-September 30.

Government-owned and loss-making Air India (AI) has terminated from service 194 cabin crew and 11 pilots over the past year, primarily for unauthorised absence.

It now has 3,400 cabin crew, including 800 hired on contract. A senior executive said, “Improving the performance parameters is priority. It is important to instil a sense of discipline. The airline and its passengers should not suffer due to delays or absenteeism on the part of cockpit and cabin crew.”

An Air India flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad carrying 103 passengers was forced to land in Jaipur after a suspected problem in its landing gear. The Airbus 321, which left Delhi at 6 AM, landed in Jaipur after a technical problem was suspected in its landing gear, officials said. Another aircraft was sent from Delhi take the passengers on their onward journey and the flight reached Ahmedabad at 9 AM.

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