"New, aspirational India is our target market": Air India Express Managing Director amid inaugural flight to Ayodhya
Dec 30, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 30 : People are looking at opportunities to travel and go around and this new, aspirational India is the target market of Air India Express, said its Managing Director Aloke Singh on Saturday when the inaugural flight was launched to Ayodhya.
"This is the new India. It is extremely aspirational. People are looking at opportunities to travel and go around, and this is exactly the market segment that we want to address and tap into," Singh told ANI.
"We are all excited with this new destination on our network. We have always been looking for opportunities to expand the network. We believe Ayodhya is a great fit for our network. It is an emerging hotspot, not just for pilgrimage and religious tourism but, I think, also for the source market that it represents," he added.
Further, Singh expressed interest in providing international connectivity if Ayodhya becomes an international airport.
"If Ayodhya becomes an international airport, we will be very happy to look at providing international connectivity. As you know, even today, almost 50 per cent of our capacity is deployed on regional international routes, which are destinations in the Gulf, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. And we are also looking at expanding the network within a six-hour range of the country. So that will include, uh, the South Asia region, which is Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. These are countries that have a very strong affinity for pilgrimage and religious, touristic places within the country. So obviously, there could be a lot of potential customers coming in from these regions," the Air India Express Managing Director said.
"We are also looking at greatly increasing our presence in the Southeast Asia region. And over a period of time, we will also be looking at the CIS countries. So anything that is in a range of about 6 hours, two from India, is of deep interest to us," Singh added.
On being asked whether Singh foresees Ayodhya and Abu Dhabi connecting through Air India Express in the future, the Managing Director of Air India Express said it was absolutely possible.
"Absolutely possible. I think Uttar Pradesh generally, as a source market, is very huge, and I think it has the potential to grow way more than beyond what it has grown today. So most certainly, Uttar Pradesh is a huge market, and we would be very keenly looking at potential destinations, too, from Uttar Pradesh. And then this is not just outbound from Uttar Pradesh; this is also about incoming into Uttar Pradesh," Singh said.
Further, Singh said that their new aircraft livery features representations of different parts of the country, showcasing the nation's culture, art, and heritage. This initiative aligns with their goal of not just providing transportation services but also serving as ambassadors of the country's culture and heritage.
"We see a very large pilgrimage and a religious tourist market, and I think Ayodhya is also about the culture and heritage of the country. This is one aspect, or this is one area, that we believe we want to stay connected to. If you see the aircraft livery, our new livery has a representation from some part of the country on the tail. From various parts of the country, we are showcasing the culture, the art and heritage of the country via the livery of the aircraft. So this is something that fits in very well with what we want to do. And not just provide connections and transport people from a to b on the network, but we also want to be the cultural and heritage ambassadors," the Air India Express MD said.
