The corporate headquarters of Air India Express in Kochi will undergo a major revamp soon.
Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani, who visited Kochi recently, provided the administrative sanction for overhauling the office here, said a press release on Tuesday.
The overhauled facility will have ticketing and reservation centres on the ground floor.
The proposed Air India Express facility will also house the Boardroom of Air India Express.
“The facility upgrade will help Air India Express meet the need for additional space requirement of a growing workforce in the airline, which is on an expansion mode,” said the release.
The objective of the effort is to achieve more effective coordination among various departments. It will also serve to boost customer confidence, said K. Shyam Sundar, Chief Executive Officer of Air India Express.
During his visit, Mr. Lohani had interacted with a wide cross section of the Air India and Air India Express teams at the Air India Express headquarters, city booking office and at Cochin International Airport.
During the inspection carried out at the airport, Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL), the ground handling arm of Air India, was directed to procure modern equipment and improve the infrastructure to meet the demands of Air India, Air India Express and customer airlines. A.K. Sharma, CEO, AIATSL, was also present.
Mr. Lohani also collected feedback from the senior executives of the travel trade. He said that 14 new Airbus A-320 aircraft would join the Air India fleet and they would be put to use for domestic operations.
This is in addition to the six new Boeing 737-800 aircraft joining the Air India Express fleet.which were planned to be deployed mainly on the India-Gulf routes.
The official told travel agents that Alliance Air would increase its feeder operations by adding new 72-seater ATRs.
At present, ATR-42 aircraft are being deployed by Air India on the Kochi–Agatti and Kochi–Bangalore sectors.
14 new Airbus A-320 aircraft to join
Air India fleet
6 new Boeing 737-800 to join AI Express fleet
