Air India now cuts domestic, international flights

The airline initially announced the reduction of 15 per cent of its International widebody schedule and has now decided to trim its domestic schedule by 5 per cent until mid-July.

The domestic flights of Air India are operated largely by its narrowbody fleet comprising Airbus A320 family, both “ceo” and “neo”, with over 60 of those coming in from the merger with Vistara.

While the airline gave reasons for international cancellations, pinning it to additional checks ordered by the regulator and extended flying hours due to the crisis in West Asia, the domestic flights are immune to airspace closures and the regulator has not ordered any additional checks on the narrowbody fleet.

The airline is pulling out of three routes, viz. Bengaluru - Singapore, Pune - Singapore and Mumbai - Bagdogra, while it reduces frequency on 19 routes, a total frequency reduction of 120 per week.

These routes include flights operated by former Vistara aircraft (AI 2xxx series) as well as legacy Air India aircraft (non-refurbished).

Data shared by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, shows that the airline operated between 530 to 545 flights a day within India and on 160 sectors, and the impact is on 12 per cent of its total domestic routes.

On all the routes where Air India is cancelling or reducing capacity, except for the Pune to Singapore route, competition exists. In most cases, the market leader is IndiGo, which is well placed to take away some traffic.

However, the end of June marks the culmination of school holidays in all parts of the country and the start of the lean monsoon season, putting pressure on yields and traffic.

The reduction in capacity may not increase fares exponentially, but, in fact, help maintain them from the airline's perspective.

After holding on to the 3100+ daily domestic flights in India, the industry could see a drop of over 100 flights in July, with some days potentially dropping below the 3000 mark.

This will also lead to market share alterations, with IndiGo likely to gain some more market share and Akasa Air the next beneficiary.

With Air India focusing on reducing route overlaps with low-cost subsidiary Air India Express, the presence of Air India Express on these routes where Air India is reducing capacity is minimal.