With state-owned Air India intending to shift its European base from Frankfurt, dozens of countries in the euro zone have started wooing the airline to set up its hub in their territories. The local representative of the UK has even offered to give a dedicated terminal to the airline near London, official sources told FE.
“Aviation authorities of all the major European countries, including France, the Netherlands and the UK, have offered Air India to use their airports as hub in the region,” a government official said.
Since cities in Europe have multiple airports, they vie among themselves for larger share of the traffic. Higher number of flights add to their both aero and non-aero revenues besides linking them with strategic markets.
“Everybody looks at it commercially. Dubai has also offered Air India to operate from its new airport. National carriers of European countries are either very strong or there are not any, so they do not fear Air India making hub in their countries,” Amadeus India managing director Ankur Bhatia said.
Air India wants to move from Frankfurt as the airport has proved to be very expensive for them given the scale of operation from the German financial capital to the US, Canada and parts of Europe. The aviation company has, meanwhile, announced to use Delhi as its prime hub after the newly-constructed terminal (T3) opens for commercial operation.
Following its decision to make Frankfurt its hub for long-haul flights, Air India had restructured its West-bound flights to Europe and the US. The airline currently uses its European hub to provide onward connectivity to Chicago and Newark besides several destinations such as Amsterdam, Munich and Stuttgart in code-share partnership with Lufthansa.
?Choice of hub is very critical as a lot of seamlessness depend on it,? Centre for Asia pacific Aviation (CAPA) India head Kapil Kaul said.
Airlines set up bases to operate on hub-and-spoke model to provide travellers more choices of flights.