Rohit Vaid New Delhi, November 18th : .After a nearly ten-year gap, American Airlines, based in Texas, is now looking to reconnect India with the US via non-stop flights.
The airline also sees more capacity in the sector as the competition heats up, especially from Air India, which is backed by Tata Group.
American Airlines has launched a non-stop flight from New York City to New Delhi this week on a Boeing 777300 aircraft.
IANS spoke with Tom Lattig (Managing Director EMEA Sales, American Airlines) about the positive impact of ‘visiting relatives and friends’ (VFR), on this airline’s business.
The airline also expects more student traffic to be attracted to the service in the new academic year.
We know that there are many Indian students living in North America and they will be traveling back and forth.The United States also has a large Indian population.
This is why it’s the largest segment in America right now.
We are seeing a lot of North America leisure and point-of-sale business.We do have some leisure customers but the corporate business is not yet materializing.However, Lattig said that he expects corporate recovery to happen.
The airline will begin a Bengaluru to Seattle service after Delhi.
Lattig said, “We will work closely with IndiGo in order to ensure that we have excellent connecting times and services to both Chennai and Hyderabad for Bengaluru’s service.As the markets develop we will assess, whether it makes sense for us to add nonstop flights.”
The airline has an IndiGo codeshare agreement at the moment.
A codeshare agreement is an aviation term that allows airlines to offer passengers a greater choice by selling seats on their flights to each other.
He also mentioned the interest of the airline in creating a non-stop new flight to Mumbai.
Mumbai, which I believe is a good choice for us to consider,” he said.
Lattig also acknowledged that there was foreseeable competition.
We expect Air India, and all other airlines, to compete for the non-stop flight between India and North America.Our partnership with IndiGo will allow us to access more Indian markets.
However, it is important that we maintain a level playing field.
I am certain that there will be additional capacity in the India-US markets.
We will increase capacity as we feel it is necessary, but we wish Air India all the best.
They have received new support and backing from Tatas which I believe is good news for them.
He said that they look forward to competing against them.
Contact Rohit Vaid at [email protected]
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