Air India to make Mumbai its secondary hub

Air India will make Mumbai its secondary hub, adding new flights and offering better connections through the airport’s terminal 2 (T2). The move would enable Air India to grow its transfer traffic and increase revenue. Air India operates 63 flights out of Mumbai, which includes 11 international ones. It moved its headquarters and hub to Delhi a few years ago and offers more non-stop connections to Europe, US, Australia and Russia from Delhi. Air India moved its domestic operations in Mumbai to T2. Vistara is the only other domestic airline operating from T2. “Till a few years ago, the only hubs in the region were in Dubai or Singapore. We have been able to develop our own hub at Delhi. Now, we have about 5,000 transfer passengers daily at Delhi. We expect to replicate the same in Mumbai. In the next few years, we hope to have 3,000 passengers taking transfers at Mumbai,” said commercial director Pankaj Srivastava. Air India is yet to induct six Boeing 787s out of its 27 aircraft order and has earlier this week decided to take delivery of three Boeing 777-300ERs which it originally ordered in 2005 but deferred the induction. The airline is said to be exploring flights between Ahmedabad-London and from Delhi to Copenhagen and Stockholm.