AirAsia India aims for international skies; to expand fleet 

The airline has plans to expand its fleet to 14 Airbus A 320 planes by October from the current 8. Once it has 20 aircraft in its fleet then it qualifies to fly international as per regulations.  AirAsia India a joint venture between the Tatas and Malaysia's AirAsia Berhad plans to fly international by next year. AirAsia India which is in the midst of a court case about foreign control and investment had earlier in February received a tacit approval from the DGCA. The aviation regulator DCGA had ruled the Brand Licencing Agreement (BLA) of AirAsia India does not violate the " substantial ownership and effective control " norms. “The issues continue but the DGCA ruling on the brand license agreement was quite in our favour. We have always maintained it. It’s not new to us, it’s probably new to the competition,” AirAsia India chief executive Amar Abrol said at a media roundtable in Delhi on Thursday. “We are again getting ready for the second wave of growth.” Currently, from its two bases in Delhi and Bengaluru it operates 58 flights per day to 13 domestic airports. The airline also has plans to expand its fleet to 14 Airbus A 320 planes by October from the current 8. Once it has 20 aircraft in its fleet then it qualifies to fly international as per regulations. Abrol also said that a new team would be coming to work on the international plans, as reported in Live Mint .

The focus would be on South-East Aisa because of Group's tie-up with sister airlines, which in turn would provide them ready infrastructure. AirAsia Indonesia is starting Bali-Mumbai flights, AirAsia Thailand is flying into Kolkata, AirAsia Malaysia is flying into Bhubaneswar and AirAsia X is looking at increasing its frequency to Delhi. Abrol said AirAsia India will tie-up with these sister airlines and build a network so that they can sell common tickets The airline has not turned profitable yet and Abrol did not comment on when they would turn into the black but hoped that 2017 would be better than 2016. However, he told the media that next fiscal would be an investment year for the firm and would likely look at more funding by the end of the year for its international expansion.

 The firm has already received two rounds of funding since its inception. AirAsia India also plans to induct the latest single-aisle aircraft from Airbus, the A 320 Neo, in its fleet next year. Eyeing expansion, the budget airline has scaled up its workforce by more than 50 percent to 1050 staff in the last 12 months or so. Tata Sons holds 49 per cent, its two directors -- S Ramadorai and R Venkataramanan -- have 0.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent shareholding, respectively, in the airline. The remaining 49 per cent is with AirAsia Investment Ltd 

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