Air India

[Brum X]

Its great that both Air India and Flybe will be marketing there BHX flights this way, hopefully they will pick up some extra pax from Scotland/Northern Ireland that may not be aware that Air India flies from Birmingham.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Saad Hammad, Flybe’s CEO comments: "Our new codeshare agreement with Air India is another exciting development for Flybe. It further strengthens our ability to connect our regional customers to long-haul destinations with our ‘One Stop to the World’ proposition.

“We can now give customers in the UK regions convenient access to the Indian subcontinent through Birmingham Airport. This relieves them of the need to undertake long road or rail journeys to and from the UK’s congested south east hub airports. It will also boost local economies by encouraging inbound travel from South East Asia.”

http://www.aviator.aero/press_releases/28828?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Lets get Flybe connecting onto some Norwegian long haul now

 

[Brum X]

Saad Hammad, Flybe’s CEO comments: "Our new codeshare agreement with Air India is another exciting development for Flybe. It further strengthens our ability to connect our regional customers to long-haul destinations with our ‘One Stop to the World’ proposition.

“We can now give customers in the UK regions convenient access to the Indian subcontinent through Birmingham Airport. This relieves them of the need to undertake long road or rail journeys to and from the UK’s congested south east hub airports. It will also boost local economies by encouraging inbound travel from South East Asia.”

http://www.aviator.aero/press_releases/28828?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Lets get Flybe connecting onto some Norwegian long haul now

But first we need the Norweigan Long Haul.

Flybe could also set up similar arrangements with PIA onto there flights to Pakistan, I believe Glasgow airport has been trying to get PIA for years but with no joy and I believe there is a large Pakistani community in Scotland.

 

[Ray Finkle]

If there is the potential of feed from Flybe that could only help matters. They've agreed a deal 'in principle' with Ryanair about feed at LGW.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Air India are planning on launching 'one stop flights to the USA' in the future. I wonder if we'd be in with a shout for something?

 

[nwoody2001]

interesting, though I wonder why as their aircraft are capable of doing the route without the need for a stop...

 

[JENNYJET]

interesting, though I wonder why as their aircraft are capable of doing the route without the need for a stop...

Triple 7 perhaps?

 

[Brum X]

But as nwoody2001 has pointed out, a 777 can do Delhi/Mumbai -New York/Chicago/Los Angeles Direct ??

 

[Ray Finkle]

The parent AI currently has 41 wide-body aircraft of Boeing including 747, 777 and 787. "We will induct 14 more wide-body aircraft. By the end of this year when we get some Dreamliners, we will add Delhi-Madrid and have direct connectivity between India and Spain. This will be a first for India," Lohani said. AI is looking at launching one-stop flights to US, apart from its trademark non-stop.

As well as Madrid the other targets in Europe are Stockholm, Barcelona and Copenhagen. The two new US cities recently mentioned are Washington and Houston, although I'm sure that Washington was suggested as non stop. There is also to be Bengaluru-San Francisco, also non stop.

Any potential new one stop services may not necessarily be from Delhi. As well as Mumbai there are several other airports in India that could be a possibility.

 

[Brum X]

You make a good point about other airports in India other than Delhi and this could open the doors to Air India launching flights to BHX from Mumbai.

 

[JENNYJET]

But as nwoody2001 has pointed out, a 777 can do Delhi/Mumbai -New York/Chicago/Los Angeles Direct ??

Would that be a trans Pacific routing or the westbound one-stop route they hinted at? I suggested the 777 for that reason as the 787 seems capable of a moonshot!!!

 

[Ray Finkle]

Current routes

Delhi - New York 777-ER
Delhi - Chicago 777-ER
Delhi - San Francisco 777-LR
Mumbai - New York 777-ER
Mumbai - Newark 777-ER

 

[thunderchild]

Ahmedabad - London-Heathrow - Newark announced from August.

Personally I don't see BHX getting any of these sort of flights, the only contender might have been the resurrection of Toronto but with Air Canada flying non stop to Delhi I don't see a one stop routing via BHX being viable anymore.

 

[nwoody2001]

To think about it, the only benefit to having a 1 stop flight to support a destination that can't support direct flights to both destinations.

With Ahmedabad for example, it probably couldn't support direct non-stop routes to either LHR or NYC, but together it's doable. This is not to the benefit of either LHR or NYC, but primarily Ahmedabad.

Consequently, unless AI wanted to use the 1 stop location as a hub (similar to jet airways at Brussels) there would be very little benefit to BHX or any other airport to being a 1 stop airport surely?!

 

[User001]

It does make you think though, why Air India wants to compete on a route with what, 30 odd daily flights (LON-NYC).

Just when you thought Air India was on the cusp of sorting themselves out!

 

[Ray Finkle]

AI will also do a 1x weekly AMD-LHR-AMD service and are reducing DEL-LHR from 3 down to 2x daily.

I wouldn't like to share our current flights again, they do well as a stand alone route and are much better without Toronto tagged on.

If another flight, on top of what we already have, meant we could get a link to another Indian city such as Ahmedabad, then I'd take a one stop flight.

 

[nwoody2001]

It does make you think though, why Air India wants to compete on a route with what, 30 odd daily flights (LON-NYC).

Just when you thought Air India was on the cusp of sorting themselves out!

The point I was trying to make here is that AI wouldn't be really targeting the LON-NYC markets, but the AMD-LON and AMD-NYC markets which in reality aren't big enough to support their own direct flights! If they can pick anyone up on the LON-NYC then it's a bonus

 

[Hassaan]

It was 3 years of the current service as of Monday. I hope it can sustain itself for longer.

Is it in a healthy position at the moment?

 

[Ray Finkle]

92% load factor yesterday.

 

[Brum X]

92% load factor yesterday.

I would say that is a fantastic load factor. Nice one Air India