MINISTER OF OVERSEAS INDIAN AFFAIRS & MINISTER OF CIVIL AVIATION
(SHRI VAYALAR RAVI)
(a): Yes, Madam. The Corporate Headquarters of Air India
Express has been inaugurated at Kochi on 27th February,2011.
(b) and (c): It was considered necessary to shift the
headquarters of Air India Express to Kerala as it is
operating more than half of its flights from that state. The
decision to shift the Corporate and administrative functions
to Kochi was based on the commercial consideration keeping
in view the potential and demographic indices of Kochi and
future growth plan of Air India Express in the region.
(d) and (e): The decision for creation of a maintenance
facility in the South of India was taken way back in 2004.
It was felt that Air India needed a maintenance facility in
the South especially since Mumbai was saturated and it was
necessary to establish a base elsewhere for maintaining
smaller aircraft proposed to be inducted in the fleet. It
was also decided that while establishing the maintenance
base the management should also take into consideration the
number of flights operating out of various points in Kerala
and the base should be located accordingly, in the manner
that reduces turnaround time and aircraft availability,
minimum movement of personnel and thus reduces delays and
cancellations.
Since the hanger facility was already constructed by Air
India at Thiruvananthapuram, it was decided to shift the
engineering base of Air India Express to this base instead
of wasting resources in preparing a fresh hanger at Kochi,
particualry in view of the critical financial condition of the Company