New Delhi: A large national carrier that's what the government wants to create with a proposal to merge Air India and Indian.
Should the merger go through, the two airlines will meld into a $3 billion company. But what can the airlines bring to the table?
For one, they will have a fleet of 111 aircraft, 42 from Air India and 69 from Indian and subsidiary Alliance Air. That's hardly a patch on some large national carriers, such as British Airways, which has about 300 aircraft. Even so, it could be counted among medium-sized airlines like Singapore Air.
The merger will help the airline to rationalise routes. For Instance, there are 9 overseas destinations to which Air India and Indian operate competing flights.
These can be combined, making for fewer flights with higher loads and better yields. Besides, this would free up aircraft for new sectors.
The merged entity will be able to pool together human resources, especially pilots who are in great demand. The two airlines together employ about 33,500 people.
Add to this infrastructure at airports, parking and landing bays and unlimited flying rights of national carriers that will accrue to them.
Theoretically, if these resources are put together the Air India-Indian combine will become India's largest carrier.
But aviation experts say both the airlines have been making losses or marginal profits over the past 10 years and bringing two unviable entities together may not necessarily make it a strong viable airline.
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