Air India Regional Manager Gulf, Middle East & Africa Melwin D'Silva, while lauding the travel agents for their continuous support in growing Air India's image and business, promised every support and incentives from the carrier despite regional and global challenges. In this regard, he announced that in Cochin and Hyderabad, people will be allowed to carry 45 kilogram baggage both ways, and for the other areas, the carrier will allow 40 kilograms both ways. "You are the real friends of Air India who have supported us over the years. Whatever we are and whatever we'll be in the future will be decided by the people who are sitting here." "We have commenced our journey for 2017, though 2016 was challenging we got excellent support from all of you. And hope to see the same support. The region I'm heading is a prominent region in terms of revenues and operations. In this region, Saudi and UAE are the major contributors," he said during an event at the Trident Hotel on Tuesday to honor travel agents. While stating Air India is up to the challenge in terms of competing with the best, in terms of service levels and incentives, he said we are in a mode of expansion. "We are soon to increase our fleet, also the age of our fleet is almost less than 5 years, and we have earmarked 27 Dreamliners, of which 23 of the 27 is already joined the fleet and the remaining 4 will come in the next 2 to 3 years. "We are going to add sectors, with Delhi being the main hub where we have started lots of flights to Europe, in US we have started San Francisco and in future we are going to add Washington in July. "We know passengers who are going by indirect carriers now prefer Air India. We are giving competitive fares not only for original destinations, but also fare called the Sixth Freedom fares for passengers from the Gulf to travel to Delhi and from there onward to other destinations, be it Southeast Asia, Europe or Americas. When asked about what about Calicut service, D'Silva said: "As far as Calicut is concerned, Air India would definitely be ready to fly there. Kerala is a huge and important market for us, and we know the importance of Cochin, Thiruvananthapuram..." "As far as Air India is concerned we are ready, but we are waiting for the airport to be ready to accept wide bodies, without that we cannot operate to Calicut. I am more than willing to fly to Calicut, but from Jeddah the narrow bodies cannot fly to Calicut. So we are waiting for the good news from Calicut... We have already started 4 flights from Riyadh to Calicut because up to Riyadh we can do with a narrow body, but cannot from Jeddah." On local competitors entering Gulf and challenging Air India's share, he said "we are a mega airline and has well defined subsidiaries that take care of all segments. It has got three main arms —AI that operates internationally, AI Express (budget carrier) and the third option is domestically to take care regional connectivity between two-tier and 3-tier cities in India. With that type of network and the coordination we have, we reach the remotest part of India and to the furthest part in the world. "To add to that we are Star Alliance partners and that makes us one mega carrier throughout the world. From point to point we can touch any area across the world. For us we look within ourselves and am sure that within Air India we have enough strength to face any competition. "The DelhiSan Francisco flight (17 hours) is one of the longest commercial flight we have introduced. We have started flying outbound over the Atlantic and returns back over the Pacific, completing a circle. It is the first flight round the world for Air India. On March 18, (women's day) we plan to have an all-women's flight on this round the world route." Echoing D'Silva's optimism, Regional Finance Manager Gulf, Middle East & Africa Harish Pai too drew an upward graph of the carrier's fortunes despite the challenging times. "We have been in this market for decades and you'll have been our partners for the last 40 to 50 years I can say. You'll have been partners during good times and in the most challenging times also... and shown that we together can face any challenges that this gives us confidence. "Air India has also undergone changes at the top levels and the company has come out of the red and has started making operating profits and we hope to end this year with better results, but having said that we still face new challenges. But we are working on fresh initiatives to overcome that," Pai remarked. Noor Mohammed, Air India Western Region Manager, said "the Air IndiaJeddah team is always committed to serve the travel agents, and are always open to suggestions and improvements that would mutually boost our businesses. I use this opportunity to thank all out travel partners for their support. And expect to sustain this partnership in the future also." The travel agents from various agencies were presented mementos by the Air India dignitaries.
