AirAsia India the joint venture between Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia Bhd. and Tata Sons is putting the turmoil of 2015 and early 2016 behind itself. After years of stalled growth, the airline added two more aircraft in late-2016 and is planning to add six more Airbus A320 aircraft by October 2017 according to Amar Abrol, Chief Executive Officer, AirAsia India.
After taking over on April 1, 2016, Abrol said that the first few months in the airline for him was to stabilise operations. “Growth was not on our agenda at first, things needed to settle down. I believe we have achieved that and now we can embark on a growth phase again.” The airline has spent the last few months adding more staff to handle the operations of an expanded airline and Abrol mentioned that the human resources front has been a particular concern for him and staff strength has gone from 650n to 1050 employees in the past few months, more than enough according to him to handle the new planes and additional frequencies.
With growth back on the agenda, Abrol spoke about how the airline is adding new stations and expanding operations in Delhi. Of the eight aircraft currently in the fleet, five are based in bangalore and three in Delhi but Abrol said of the six planes joining the fleet this year, three each will go to Kolkata and Delhi. “Delhi will be our largest station and we see Kolkata as a major centre for growth for us.” AirAsia India still does not operate from Mumbai, as slots at Mumbai airport are difficult to come by.
In addition, AirAsia is looking to increase to over 20 aircraft by 2018 and has just established a team to explore international operations after the government scrapped the 5/20 policy, although airlines still need 20 aircraft plus to operate international routes. In the meantime, Abrol mentioned that AirAsia India is working with their sister concerns in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia for better coordination between international operations run by those airlines into India and AirAsia India. “Our sister concerns operate 96 flights a week into India, we are exploring how we can better coordinate our flight operations so as to offer more connectivity both to incoming passengers as well as Indian passengers.”