First direct India-Australia air link by Oct

The first direct air link between India and Australia would be established by Air India when it launches non-stop flights from Delhi to Melbourne by October-November this year.

Using the plush integrated Terminal-3 (T3) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here as its new hub, the national carrier also plans to launch non-stop flights to Toronto and Chicago from the winter schedule this year, airline officials said.

Air India has its international hub at Frankfurt like Jet Airways' in Brussels. The services to Melbourne, Chicago and Toronto are likely to be launched from the winter schedule which begins in October, they said, adding that the service to Seoul would also be resumed during that period.

The new flights would be part of the airline's overall restructuring and revamping process which is being monitored closely by the government. An additional equity infusion of Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) being planned by the government this year would depend on the success of this process.

With the commencement of services to Melbourne and Chicago and resumption of flights to Seoul, Air India would be serving a total of 22 international destinations from its new hub in the capital.

The destinations would be New York, Chicago, Toronto, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Kathmandu and Kabul. These international flights from the T3 hub would be connected with several domestic destinations as a 'hub and spoke' service.

This would enable a passenger, flying in from an Indian city, to easily cross over to the international departure area of the integrated terminal T3 for a seamless transfer to the connecting flight abroad.

"Successful operation of T3 requires a flawless integration of international and domestic operations so as to provide passengers with a seamless, integrated experience when they choose Air India over its competitors," an official said.

With the planned increases, Air India would be operating 143 international services per week offering about 33,000 seats per week in each direction on services out of Delhi, the airline officials said.

This would be up from 22,500 seats per week currently, representing a hike of nearly 50 per cent.  The increase in capacity on international routes would be due to the rise in frequencies on several of Air India's existing international services from and to Delhi, like those connecting London, Paris, Tokyo and the new daily non-stop services planned for Melbourne, Chicago and Toronto.

On the domestic front, Air India would be connecting Delhi to 47 cities by direct services. The total number of domestic services is planned to be increased from currently 62 per day to 71, with the capacity offered going up from 8,600 seats daily to 10,200 in each direction, they said.

As a result, Air India would improve feeder traffic between its domestic and international network and also focus on large 6th freedom markets such as London-Melbourne, Bangkok-London, Bangkok-Paris, Bangkok-Frankfurt and London-Kathmandu.

Sixth freedom is the commercial aviation right, under the 1944 Chicago Convention, to carry passengers or cargo from a second country to a third country by stopping in one's own country.

For example, Air India would carry passengers or cargo from Melbourne to London after a stopover at Delhi. The officials said a lot of work had been done in past few months on preparing for this move, with teams working on developing revised schedules, airport agreements and improved customer centric processes.

They said the Delhi hub in T3 would "grow to its full potential over the next two seasons" -- winter schedule this year and summer schedule next year.