First flight touchdown at T3, AI to make terminal its hub

New Delhi, Jul 14 (PTI) With the first flight landing at
the newly-built Terminal-3 of the Indira Gandhi International
Airport in India's national capital Delhi to a rousing
reception, Air India chief Arvind Jadhav on Wednesday said the
national carrier would launch new flights by establishing its
operations hub here.
As the carrier's non-stop flight from New York, AI-102,
landed at 1640 hours, it was given a salute with jet of water
being sprayed from cannons from both its side as it taxied on
the bay to dock at T3.
The passengers were given a warm welcome on arrival by
officials Air India and Delhi International Airport Limited
(DIAL).
Speaking on the occasion, Jadhav announced that Air India
would make T3 as its hub and launch new flights to Melbourne,
Toronto and Chicago from the winter schedule, starting
October.
Prior to merger, AI had its operations hub in Mumbai and
Indian Airlines in Delhi.
He also asked all employees to work together to turn the
hub into an opportunity to turnaround the national carrier.
Air India would offer hub-and-spoke service by connecting
a large number of Indian cities to 22 destinations across the
world, providing passengers seamless transfers from domestic
to international flights.
"Our first challenge is to provide world-class service
from this world-class terminal. It was also a big challenge to
build it. The second challenge is to run our services
successfully to meet passengers' aspirations," he said, asking
the employees to be ready to deal with passengers "in a
world-class manner".
Jadhav said T3 was "part of Air India's turnaround plan.
It will benefit the airline by increasing its revenue by 8-9
per cent in the short-term and 10-15 per cent in the
long-term".
"T3 has provided Air India with the opportunity to be
the first mover. We will have to develop it as a formidable
primary hub from which we will be able to connect India to the
world," the Air India CMD said.
With the planned new flights, Air India would be
operating to 22 international destinations, raise the number
of flights to 143 a week, up by 50 per cent, he said.
DIAL chief Kiran Grandhi said apart from developing T3 as
a hub for Indian carriers, the GMR-led consortium was also
creating a "cargo village" to turn the airport into a cargo
focus point.
"The hub has come home", he remarked, indicating that
both Air India and Jet Airways have their international hubs
at Frankfurt and Brussels airports respectively. PTI SMJ
RBT