Air India Express is gearing up for a capacity expansion, in both the domestic and international market segments, driven by planned aircraft inductions, senior airline executives told FE. Last month, the airline inducted its 75th aircraft, a Boeing 737. Over the past 10 months, the airline has added 26 new Boeing 737-8 aircraft to its fleet, significantly increasing the number of daily flight operations.
According to airline sources, Air India Express plans to increase its flight frequencies to West Asia and Southeast Asia. Currently, the airline flies to 14 international destinations (13 in West Asia and Singapore) and over 30 domestic destinations, operating more than 380 flights a day.The number of domestic and international stations is set to increase as the airline expands its connectivity to tier-II and III cities, aiming to reach a total of 50 stations shortly. On the international front, the airline is working on schedules to commence operations in Dhaka and Kathmandu soon, another source said.
The focus on Southeast Asian markets will also intensify as more aircraft join its fleet.“By increasing our domestic footprint in smaller towns and cities, we will be able to feed into the long-haul flights of our parent company, Air India. With our codeshare with Air India, a guest from Ranchi can now fly on a single itinerary to San Francisco or New York,” an airline executive told FE. The airline is seeing demand from passengers opting for its flights from places like Bengaluru to Kochi and then to West Asia destinations. When contacted, the airline did not elicit a response on capacity expansion.
In addition to expanding its network, Air India Express is enhancing its value proposition for passengers by offering unbundled services, such as a zero baggage fare. One of the previously quoted officials mentioned that opening up capacity through the addition of new destinations has allowed the airline to upsell its ancillary services. A recent example is the airline’s entry into the package holiday business, branded as XpressHolidays, where passengers can book tour packages along with their flight tickets.
“We have over a million international and domestic passengers travelling with us on a monthly basis. This gives us additional leverage to offer more services to them,” the official said. Additionally, the airline has announced its collaboration with Zoom Car, allowing passengers to self-drive a Zoom Car from their destination airport and return it to the airport upon their return, all through the airline’s website or mobile app. For those seeking chauffeur-driven cars, the airline has partnered with Avis Cars, which can be pre-booked through the airline’s website.
The airline has also introduced a fare lock service, enabling passengers to block a domestic sector fare for up to seven days for Rs 250 and an international flight fare for seven days for Rs 500. Air India Express has partnered with service providers to offer innovative schemes like FlyPorter, where passengers’ baggage is picked up from their doorstep at the origin station and delivered to their doorstep at the destination station.The airline has also received a boost from the recent NCLT order, which gave the green light to the merger of AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) into Air India Express.
