Air India Announces "Senior Citizen Companion Fare"

India’s flag carrier, Air India has announced “Senior Citizen Companion Fare” scheme that enables two travellers, who are 62 years old or more, to save significant sum of money if they travel together on roundtrip Executive Class on flights to India.

India's national airline, Air India, has come up with a new deal to attract senior citizens travelling to India.

Air India has announced a new “Senior Citizen Companion Fare” that will offer big savings to two passengers who are 62 years of age or older and are flying together on roundtrip flights to Delhi or Mumbai.

The deal will allow the two passengers to save at least $1,300 each on published round trip Executive Class tickets on flights to India, as per the airline’s press release. The offer is good on Air India non-stop flights to Delhi from John F. Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport to Mumbai, or Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Delhi and return.

The state-owned airline’s special round trip fares start at $3,394 per traveller (as reported in airline’s website). The fare includes all taxes, airport and security fees, and fuel surcharges. Passengers who want to take advantage of the “Senior Citizen Companion Fare” but wish to travel beyond Delhi or Mumbai will also be benefited as the airline has come up with connections to more than 50 other major cities in India at special add-ons, plus additional taxes.

Things to Know

Senior citizens aged 62 or more and seeking cheap flights to India with Air India’s new offer must be aware of below mentioned terms and conditions before taking the plunge.

• The offer applies to transatlantic travel Monday through Thursday in both directions, with travel commencing on or before October 15, 2012.

• Travellers must book their cheap flights to India by September 30th. For those travelling under the AI’s new scheme, the minimum duration of stay in India is 21 days and the maximum stay is 6 months. Moreover, it is essential that both passengers travel together on the same outbound and return flights.

• Air India marks out certain ‘blackout periods’ during when travel is not permitted with “Senior Citizen Companion Fare.” The airline’s website states:  travel is not permitted eastbound from June 1 to August 12, 2012; or westbound from August 1 to September 12, 2012 and from December 20, 2012 to January 30, 2013.

• Tickets are refundable, less a cancellation fee of $500 per passenger. Also, refunds will be given only when both tickets are submitted at the same time.

• For date changes, travellers will have to shell out a fee of $500 per traveller, plus any fare difference.

AI’s Executive Class

Air India’s flights to India from North America are served by either Boeing 777-200LR or 777-300ER aircraft. Passengers opting to travel with AI’s Executive Class will be treated with a variety of services and amenities.

Apart from spacious seats and huge LCD screens, passengers get a taste of award-winning in-flight service of Air India.

Air India to Expand Operations in Summer

Air India, India’s national airline, has devised plans to increase its flight network and frequency in its summer schedule. The airline, considered by many the top choice for flights to India, is hoping to earn more revenue from profitable routes.

Air India may be struggling as far as profitability is concerned but that is not stopping India’s flag carrier to spread its wings wide!

If reports doing the rounds in Indian media are to be believed, then Air India is all set to expand its summer schedule considerably to earn more revenues from profitable routes. Cash-strapped Air India is planning to increase the number flights to over 400 from the current 380 in its summer schedule (beginning April), according to a report published in a financial daily of the country.

Air India has plans to initiate daily flights between Vizag and Dubai via Hyderabad. The airline also hopes to kick start flights to India’s capital city, Delhi from Bahrain via Abu Dhabi.

Moreover, the Indian carrier is going to elevate its services between Delhi and Tokyo. Currently, Air India offers four weekly services between the two destinations which the airline is hoping to bring up to five weekly. The airline will also be making Delhi-Dammam twice a week service to a daily operation in its summer schedule.

Besides initiating a slew of international flights, Air India has its eye firmly set on the low-cost business model. The airline is going all guns blazing to ensure that it becomes a name to reckon with when people think of booking cheap flights to India. The carrier seeks to invade low-budget travel market and by the looks of it the airline has already set the ball rolling. Recently, Air India trimmed down business class seats from some of its fleet aircraft in an endeavour to become more of an airline that runs on a low-cost business model. While this move primarily catered to domestic travellers, in future even international travellers looking for cheap flights to India might be benefited from such measures taken by the airline.

The report published in the Indian newspaper also quoted a senior AI official. He offered the rationale behind the decision to cut down business class seats by emphasising that low-cost market has been growing while business class travel is on the decline. However, the airline official clarified that Air India is not exiting the business class segment and will continue to offer business seats in domestic network as well as on international flights to India.

Air India was also hoping to commence more routes in Europe, the US and Australia but the delay in getting the delivery of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner acted as an impediment. There have been reports that the airline may begin these routes in the winter schedule.

While on the topic of 787 Dreamliner, it should be mentioned that the Dreamliner landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Monday after making a 14-hour non-stop flight from Seattle, USA.

787 Dreamliner, considered world’s most fuel efficient aircraft, is expected to be delivered to Air India by May this year.

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Air India Proposes to Launch Delhi- Melbourne Operations

India’s flag carrier, Air India has made public its intention of launching direct Delhi-Melbourne flights. The airline will use the Boeing 787 aircraft on the route once they are delivered to the carrier in mid-2012.

Air India has proposed to launch non-stop Delhi-Melbourne services in coming few months.

India’s flag carrier hopes to launch direct flights to Melbourne once it receives Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

“Air India has proposed to launch direct services to Australia from Delhi commencing from about the third quarter of 2012-13, using the Boeing 787 aircraft, which are expected to be inducted in May this year,” various websites quoted an Indian Civil Aviation Ministry official as saying.

Once this proposed launch materialises, Air India would become the only airline providing non-stop flights for India-Australia market, highlighted the ministry official.

It has been learnt that Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, who is leading an Australian business entourage to India, had a meeting with Ajit Singh, India’s Civil Aviation Minister, yesterday. The likely launch of Air India’s flights to Melbourne from Delhi has been discussed in the meeting.

“With sizable Indian population residing in Melbourne, a Delhi-Melbourne direct Air India flight would be in their larger interest and also in the business interest of the two countries,” Baillieu said during the meeting, as reported by news websites.

Air India hopes that it will run at more than 75 per cent passenger load factor on an average round the year. The airline’s intended service to Australia has received many concessional deals from the Government of Victoria and New South Wales.

The state-owned carrier is pushing for more concessions as it conducts fresh negotiations with the governments of Victoria and New South Wales. The airline is even seeking concessions from the Airport Authority at Sydney and Melbourne. Furthermore, it is learnt that Ted Baillieu has assured the carrier of its full backing on the issue. AI said that the concessions are sought to make flights to the region cost-effective. It surely would interest the air ticket buyers if Air India decides to convert this cost-effectiveness into cheap flight tickets for them!

Industry estimates put the annual traffic between India and Australia at somewhere around 3, 35,000 passengers. Melbourne and Sydney hold the most significant portions of that traffic. As per an estimate, air traffic between India and these two Australian cities is around 1, 30,000 passengers each. A good number of passengers will be waiting for AI to launch its direct services on the travel route and many of them would also be hoping to grab cheap flight tickets on the world’s most fuel efficient aircraft!

AI January Revenue Up

In what may be a silver lining among the dark clouds of Indian aviation market, Air India posted fairly decent numbers in January 2012 with the overall revenue escalating by 30.4 percent over the same period last year.

Air India’ international revenue in January went up by 27.2 percent and its domestic revenue spiralled up by 36.6 percent.

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