Air India to consider Dublin as it's European Hub

kevinmcc

http://www.livemint.com/2010/02/10000542/Air-India-to-consider-Dublin-f.html

New Delhi: India and Ireland are likely to expand their air services pact to allow their flag carriers—Air India and Aer Lingus, respectively—to start flying to the two countries, said a civil aviation ministry official familiar with the development.

The move comes as Air India is set to consider Ireland’s Dublin airport as a potential new hub in Europe for its one-stop flights between India and the US, he said.

Air India, run by National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, has been scouting for an airport in Europe that’s cheaper to operate than its current hub in Frankfurt, Germany.

The airline’s chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav and senior civil aviation ministry officials will inspect the airport in the Irish capital this fortnight, the ministry official said.

The airports at Copenhagen, Denmark and Vienna, Austria are also likely hubs. But Dublin offers an advantage as the only European airport where passengers can clear immigration for the US, and avoid long queues at congested airports such as New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Another ministry official said it was too early to take a decision on moving to a new hub in Europe, given that Air India is fighting for a government bailout to remain afloat.

Questions sent by email to Dublin Airport Authority Plc., which manages Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports in Ireland, remained unanswered.

A London-based aviation analyst said the facility of US immigration clearance was drawing even European airlines to Dublin.

“British Airways(BA) recently started an all-business A318 service from London City Airport to New York JFK with a fuel stop in Dublin on the outbound only,” he said.

“BA has added the benefit of pre-clearing US immigration in a dedicated queue, so the stop actually doesn’t delay passengers, particularly non-US passport holders, as it can take up to an hour to clear immigration in JFK,” the analyst said. He too didn’t want to be named.

Besides Ireland’s Dublin and Shannon airports, only some Canadian and Caribbean airports offer US immigration clearance outside US territory.

The analyst, however, said Air India needs to look at its options carefully “as there is no India-Ireland traffic”.

Though airports like Frankfurt charge a higher fee, they attract more business class fliers, which can partly offset the costs for a carrier, he added.

“It would be better to stop/hub in Manchester or Birmingham (both in the UK), where there are sizeable Indian communities,” he said. “The catchment area of these cities is also much larger.”

Slice

Wasn't Pakistan's national airline thinking of flying into Dublin before also? That never came of anything either.

What's Air India meant to be like to fly with? I hear they're prone to security threats.

I definitely think we'll see Dublin attract more Far East airlines that want to use the US pre-clearance facility ...fingers crossed.

donkey balls

BA fly from LCY(london city) to JFK via fuel stop in SNN

highlydebased

A poor article; It states Dublin is the only airport in Europe with US immigration then further down it states both Dublin and Shannon have it! Also how misguided is he to to assume that the BA flight stops in Dublin? :mad:

Will be interesting nonetheless though, I think Shannon would be mad to let this opportunity slip though...

Andrew33

Neon-Circles wrote: »

A poor article; It states Dublin is the only airport in Europe with US immigration then further down it states both Dublin and Shannon have it! Also how misguided is he to to assume that the BA flight stops in Dublin? :mad:

Will be interesting nonetheless though, I think Shannon would be mad to let this opportunity slip though...

Is there an airport in Shannon?:D:D:D

Run_to_da_hills

Andrew33 wrote: »

Is there an airport in Shannon?:D:D:D

They will have to clear the tumbleweed from the runway first.

highlydebased

:rolleyes:

cson

Very petty to have a laugh at an airport that has been abandoned by the Government and is going to result in a lot of people out of a job and the west losing yet another service.

Cookie_Monster

cson wrote: »

Very petty to have a laugh at an airport that has been abandoned by the Government and is going to result in a lot of people out of a job and the west losing yet another service.

rather than just dumping unending amounts of tax money into a clearly non-viable airport for the next 20 years?

John_Mc

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

rather than just dumping unending amounts of tax money into a clearly non-viable airport for the next 20 years?

It was making money before EI packed up and left. The DAA is doing it no favours with FR as well.

Your point still doesnt change the fact that making a laugh out of the situation is plain wrong.

Guell72

I hope Mary Coughlan isnt required to help out here. Because that will never happen.

cson

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

rather than just dumping unending amounts of tax money into a clearly non-viable airport for the next 20 years?

That'd be an argument if it wasn't for the fact that another agency that huge amounts of unending tax money is dumped into is managing it. Or not as the case is. The DAA are killing Shannon.

crushproof

Questions sent by email to Dublin Airport Authority Plc., which manages Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports in Ireland, remained unanswered.

Unbelievable, even an acknowledgement email would do, as any normal business-wise company would.
Gives off the impression that the DAA are not interested in doing business with Air India whatsoever.

Gekko

That might be the journalist's questions that went unanswered rather than the DAA's, although anything's possible

Surely Shannon in particular should be marketing the US pre-clearance advantage to any airlines that overfly it as they cross the Atlantic?

Then again with the extra fuel burned landing there and taking off again, maybe airlines would be against it unless they could pass on these costs to passengers.

donkey balls

Gekko wrote: »

That might be the journalist's questions that went unanswered rather than the DAA's, although anything's possible

Surely Shannon in particular should be marketing the US pre-clearance advantage to any airlines that overfly it as they cross the Atlantic?

Then again with the extra fuel burned landing there and taking off again, maybe airlines would be against it unless they could pass on these costs to passengers.

BA fly LCY TO JFK via fuel stop in SNN

bamboozle

any update on this? was mentioned last month that AI still have not made a decision

NEW DELHI: State-owned carrier Air India plans to take a call soon on making Dublin airport in the Irish capital its new hub, after pulling out of Frankfurt in Germany. The talks between the Indian and Irish governments are at an advanced stage in this regard.
The Irish minister met the Indian civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
"In many ways the Indian government has shown interest in our airport and seems to be ready to go with it," the Irish minister for transport, tourism and sport Leo Varadkar said.
Air India had initially shortlisted seven European airports to make one of them its new hub, in order to cut costs and facilitate movement of traffic to the US and other parts of Europe in a smoother way.
"Dublin is one of the final two airports that Air India has zeroed in on and will shortly take a call on it," Varadkar, the first Indian origin person to be part of the Irish government, added.
According to Irish government officials, Dublin is among the bottom three airports in Europe in terms of cost. In addition, it will be able to provide a lot of operational benefits to Air India as it would give clearances to traffic headed towards the US in Dublin itself. This would save time for passengers when they land in the US. AI had started hub operations through Frankfurt in March 2009 and ceased them in Octoberlast year after making Delhi's Terminal 3 its new hub to save costs. The decision to drop the Frankfurt hub had been taken as part of a revamp of international operations, wherein the focus shifted to non-stop long-haul flights.
Consequently, the New Delhi-Frankfurt-Toronto connection became Amritsar-Delhi-London-Toronto; Delhi-Frankfurt-Newark became direct between Delhi and Newark.
The earlier practice of routing passengers from Ahmedabad, Delhi and Mumbai and from Chicago, Toronto and Newark to Frankfurt was also discontinued. Instead, Air India started direct Delhi-Chicago and Delhi-Toronto flights last year, when it commenced operations from the T3.
According to Irish government officials , using Dublin airport as a hub would make Transatlantic operations for Air India more profitable and much more passengers can be picked up en-route.

lord lucan

I thought this was dead in the water.

DoesNotCompute

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

rather than just dumping unending amounts of tax money into a clearly non-viable airport for the next 20 years?

Doesn't matter to the govt so long as the Americans have a hub through which to route their rendition flights and warplanes

roundymac

Slice wrote: »

Wasn't Pakistan's national airline thinking of flying into Dublin before also? That never came of anything either.

What's Air India meant to be like to fly with? I hear they're prone to security threats.

I definitely think we'll see Dublin attract more Far East airlines that want to use the US pre-clearance facility ...fingers crossed.

PIA went to Manchester instead which is what they wanted in the first place. Think Dublin was used as a bargining tool to get a better deal.

bamboozle

lord lucan wrote: »

I thought this was dead in the water.

article on it in the Irish Times in March, would be a good boost to T2 in Dublin.

knockon

DoesNotCompute wrote: »

Doesn't matter to the govt so long as the Americans have a hub through which to route their rendition flights and warplanes

And what has that got to do with Air India FFS....

Those "warplanes" are PAX 757/767 and MD-11's spending millions of Euro in Fuel, airport charges, transit spending and local hotels, restaurants and pubs. If Boyd Barrett and the handful of 2 or 3 in the "peace camp" members in SNN had their way we all be looking onto an empty airfield here in Co Clare. Pity some people are more concerned about a few radical Moslems that MAY or may not have been renditioned through Irish Airports than they are about the welcome business through Irish Airports. I did go off topic on this but coming out with ridiculous 1 liners and having no clue of the reality warranted a response.