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747-237 · Last edited by 747-237 on Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:47 am; edited 2 times in total

http://www.livemint.com/2010/10/24182152/Air-India-Express-to-get-a-new.html?atype=tp

Air India Express to get a new name, shift base to Kerala

Air India plans to rebrand its international low-cost subsidiary Air India Express and move the latter’s headquarters from Mumbai to Thiruvananthapuram.

The move is part of the national flag carrier’s efforts to restructure operational and marketing strategies after accumulating Rs.14,000 crore in losses over the past four fiscals. The airline is also weighed down by debt of Rs.18,000 crore.

It has already announced plans to rename its holding company, National Aviation Co. of India Ltd (Nacil), to Air India Ltd. Its regional airline service, tentatively named India Hopper, will also be renamed. “Air India is considering a new name for Air India Express as a part of branding,” chief operating officer Gustav Baldauf said. “We will also appoint a consultant (for the rebranding).”

Air India Express mostly flies to West Asian destinations, and a large number of its passengers are from Kerala. Moving its headquarters to Kerala’s capital city will, Baldauf said, lead to “better operational synergies”.

The new chief operating officer of Air India Express would shuttle between Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram for coordination.

Experts said Air India will benefit from the rebranding, but it should be accompanied by substantive changes in the way the state-owned company functions. “In the case of Air India, a rebranding would certainly help to signal a new beginning. And this is an opportune moment. But for this to become meaningful, there must be a substantial and distinctive new reality on offer, particularly if you seek to attract new customers or even generate greater loyalty among your existing base,” said Ramesh Jude Thomas, president and chief knowledge officer at brand value management firm Equitor Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Baldauf said the airline will be changing more than just its name. For instance, it has appointed Stephan Sukumar, a former chief flight training instructor at German airlines Deutsche Lufthansa AG, as its new chief training officer. Sukumar will set common standards for all divisions of Nacil.

Rebranding airlines isn’t new in India. Before Indian Airlines and Air India merged into Nacil in 2006, Indian Airlines had rebranded itself as Indian. The country’s second largest low-cost carrier, SpiceJet Ltd, was initially called MG Express, then became ModiLuft and then Royal Airways. After media baron Kalanithi Maran picking up a majority stake in the carrier in June, there were reports that the airline may change its name again to Sun Airways. But company executives have denied this. “The changing of an identity is a serious issue,” Thomas added. “It must reflect some new truth or reality that the organization would like to stand for.”

Thomas said Jet Airways (India) Ltd, India’s largest airline by passengers carried, rebranded low-cost carrier Air Sahara as JetLite to reflect the new ownership. Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, Thomas said, renamed Air Deccan to Kingfisher Red after acquiring it for two reasons: to cancel the association with the earlier’s brand’s operational difficulties, and to provide the airline the benefit of Kingfisher’s image while letting it remain independent.

Kiran Khalap, co-founder and managing director, Chlorophyll Brand and Communications Consultancy Pvt. Ltd, said analysis suggests that congruence between brand name and the legal name of its owning entity is unnecessary.

“Taj is the most famous hospitality brand name from India. The legal entity that owns that brand name is Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. Ditto Oberoi, the most premium, and its owner, East India Hotels,” Khalap said. “Unless there is a legal necessity emerging from re-structuring of ownership, changing Nacil to Air India Ltd is likely to have one salient effect: make printers of stationery and makers of signage very rich overnight.”

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Spiderguy252 · Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:17 am Post subject:

Okay. This one is not funny. Shocked

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iflytb20

747-237

Spiderguy252

Jaysit · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 4346

Come next year, they'll say that Air India, Unlimited, can't join Star because now they have to integrate hopper, cockroach, kachua, etc., etc., etc.

Meanwhile Air Zimbabwe will have joined Star.

At this point, I don't know why Star are even bothering with AI. They need to tell AI and PooPee to go to hell, and shoot for another Indian carrier (assuming PeePoo will allow it, of course).

747-237

CHS · Member Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 311

ssbmat · Member Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 1710

Yet another flight of fancy, this time with an Expat chief at the helm..

Let me add one myself, how about Air India becoming the BOAC , and its domestic ops being divided into two or three independent carriers, competing with each other on domestic routes, and all having interline agreement with Air India to transfer passengers to international routes.

Then we can have exotic names like India Hopper with its 738s, and one or two others, how about a DesiJet with A319s and some A320s serving B/C towns, and a Metrojet with the A321s and A320s in 2-class..

(a funnier interpretation of CAAC breaking up into *-China -* Airlines)

iflytb20 · Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 11:56 am Post subject:

Since we mostly fly to the ME, maybe we might be re-branded as "India Habibi" Razz

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Jaysit · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 4346

747-237 · Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 8:19 am Post subject:

Looks like Air India Express is going to be renamed "Express India". Sounds more like a newspaper, rather than an airline.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/AI-Express-to-start-budget-domestic-flights/articleshow/6819072.cms

AI Express to start budget domestic flights

Oct 27, 2010
NEW DELHI: Air India's international low-cost carrier (LCC), AI Express, is planning to launch budget domestic flights from next March, linking metros like Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata with tier II cities in the initial phase.

However, these flights will commence from Delhi only from next winter. The lag is due to the fact that the airline hopes to get its pilots trained for taking off and landing in dense fog by that time. Budget fliers from Mumbai will also have to wait as the airline has decided to cancel its only foreign flight out of the city.

The much-maligned LCC is also trying to change its image by renaming itself as Express India and shifting headquarters from Mumbai to Cochin as a majority of its 204 weekly flights operate from the south. In another big change, its all-economy configuration Boeing 737-800 aircraft will get eight business-class seats in the two front rows in the place of 18 budget seats. Termed super economy, the fares for these eight seats will be double the economy charges and the seats may also have inflight entertainment.
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iflytb20

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2010 12:15 pm Post subject:

I am sure they won't change their name. I am basing this statement on their lack of implementing anything else that they've planned before, aside from press and media reports.
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747-237 · Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 12:44 am Post subject:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangalore/Air-India-has-stand-by-aircraft-at-Bajpe/articleshow/6855257.cms

Air India has stand-by aircraft at Bajpe
Nov 1, 2010

MANGALORE: Air India Express, the low-cost carrier arm of Air India, has positioned a base aircraft at Mangalore airport from Sunday. This base aircraft will be used in case of any problems arising in the aircraft used in regular flight schedules operated by the carrier, airport director M R Vasudeva said. This aircraft will be useful in meeting unforeseen exigencies caused by technical snags beyond the control of the carrier.

Likewise, the last of the four direct chartered flights carrying Muslim pilgrims to Haj left from Mangalore airport on Sunday. In all, 868 passengers embarked on the four special direct Haj flights to Jeddah during the past three days. The Haj flight operation this year was highly successful, noted Vasudeva. The old terminal building of the airport was used as the Haj camp for pilgrims.

Minister for Wakf Mumtaz Ali Khan flagged off the first flight on Thursday.
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747-237 · Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:49 am Post subject:

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/pilots-object-to-fresh-rebranding-of-ai-express/219972.html

Pilots object to fresh rebranding of AI Express
02 Nov 2010

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association has taken strong exception to the management’s plan to rebrand Air India Express and Alliance Air as “India Hopper”.

Calling the move a “wasteful and meaningless exercise”, ICPA said it was yet another ploy to squander the company’s profits.

During the merger of Indian Airlines and Air India, “we went about renaming Indian Airlines as ‘Indian’ spending crores of rupees. Everything from business cards to the paint on aircrafts was changed, wasting the taxpayers’ money. We also lost a lot of passengers due to this rebranding,” the union said.

“After the merger, the exercise was repeated. Somewhere along the way the previous entities were again renamed NACIL(I) and NACIL(A). Now, again we hear that holding company NACIL is being renamed Air India. We wonder why our company, which has registered huge losses and is even struggling to pay salaries on time, is indulging in such thoughtless and wasteful exercises,” the union questioned.

Pilots say AI Express has become a popular choice of travel for expats from the middle-east and the neighbouring countries. “There is a brand recall value to the name and it takes years to achieve that. Additionally, another consultant will be appointed for this job, creating a financial burden,” a senior pilot said.
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GuyFromBOM · Member Joined: 19 Jun 2010 Posts: 544 Location: VABB

indopaki · Member Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 479 Location: Pakistan

Maybe just chaning name to Express Air or Express India, will be good enough to retain brand recognition.

747-237 · Posted: Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:14 pm Post subject:

747-237 · Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 6:34 pm Post subject:

http://expressbuzz.com/finance/air-india-express-hq-inaugurated-at-kochi/251842.html

Air India Express HQ inaugurated at Kochi
27 Feb 2011

KOCHI: Union Civil Aviation minister, Vayalar Ravi, today urged the Kerala government to reduce the sales tax on aviation fuel, which was the highest in the country.

Speaking at a function here after inaugurating the corporate headquarters of Air India Express (AIE), the low cost subsidiary of Air India, which was shifted from Mumbai to kochi, the minister also wanted the Cochin International Airport ltd (CIAL) to management to reduce their parking and handling fee.

'The shifting of AIE headquarters should not be seen as an opporunity to charge more, but opportunity to help people of the state. Otherwise it would be difficult to operate the service', he said.

The decision to shift the AIE headquarters was a major step to help and improve the performance of Air India. The entire operation of AIE would be guided and operated from here.

Of the 25 lakh travellers in AIE, 14.5 Lakh are from Kerala, he said adding efforts would be made to introduce flight to Damam when the summer schedules are announced in March-April. AIE operates mainly to various gulf destinations besides Singapore and Dhaka.

An AIE press release said keeping in mind that kerala is the biggest market, the airline was shifting its corporate headquarters to kochi. The engineering Hangar at Thiruvananthapuram, which is expected to be operational by April this year, will be the first ever state-of-the art engineering Hangar to be set up in the state.

AIE today operates 189 flights on its network. AIE will commence operations to Dammam by next month. Similarly flights from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram to Dammam are also on the anvil by May this year, the release said.

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