Alliance Air to be phased out soon

Mumbai: Alliance Air (A-A), the decade-old subsidiary of Indian Airlines (I-A), operating 357 weekly flights to 44 domestic destinations, is likely to be phased out soon. The airline, which operates mainly in Tier II cities like Rajkot, Agartala, Shillong, Visakhapatnam and Raipur, has been plagued by an ageing fleet causing safety concerns and frequent delays. I-A will service all A-A routes after the phaseout.
A-A has a fleet of 13 aircraft, including 9 Boeing 737-200, 3 ATR 42-320 and one ATR 42-300. The average age of these aircraft is 20 years, compared to the domestic industry average of 10, making maintenance of these aircraft costly.
The board of I-A, therefore decided to convert 5 of these aircraft into freight carriers under I-A’s freight service.
A-A incurred a loss of Rs 82.48 crore in 2002-03, and managed a profit of Rs 2.05 crore the following year.
14/04/06 Neelasri Barman & Emanuel L Joute/Financial Express

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